


Know your watcher

by rip24



Series: Know Your Watcher [1]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Genre: F/M, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-21
Updated: 2020-03-25
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:48:08
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 27,357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23237194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rip24/pseuds/rip24
Summary: Post series, discards the comics and includes no mention of anything that happened on the last seasons of Angel.The Scoobies meet up in London, Buffy is dealing with some new feelings and her plans for the future.
Relationships: Rupert Giles/Buffy Summers
Series: Know Your Watcher [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1683175
Comments: 26
Kudos: 38





	1. An Idea

**Author's Note:**

> First time I've ever posted something. Would love some feedback.  
> This is a slow burn, some mature and explicit content in chapters 9+.  
> My main thought for this was "What did Giles do on those weeks where he didn't spend 24/7 with the Scoobies.  
> We always knew most of the things the other three did, who they dated, study/work all that. We know Giles dated Jenny and we know he sometimes spent the night at the library but he must have done more. With just a little band candy he was up for public sex.  
> But then the story got away from me as I just enjoyed the characters.  
> I'm finishing the last few chapters now, will try to post at least 1 chapter a day.  
> If anyone likes this I have ideas to make this a series with at least 1 more instalment.

“Hey Will, wanna go to London?” Buffy paced her apartment hoping she could convince her friend to go along with her spur of the moment decision.  
“Wait what?” Willow's voice was a bit groggy.  
“Oh sorry were you asleep?” Buffy bit her lip realising that she hadn’t thought about the time difference before calling.  
“Yeah but it’s ok I need to get up soon anyway, what did you say about London? Is everything alright” Willow sounded more awake now.

“Ok so I know this will maybe sound a bit out of the blue here” Buffy kept pacing circles around her apartment as she talked “but I am seriously thinking about moving to London and joining Giles at the council.”  
“Uhh ok, either I’m in a strange dream or you really need to add a lot more words to that sentence.” Willow sounded as disbelieving as Buffy had expected.  
“I just want to go to London for maybe a week or two to see how I like it. Maybe it will change my mind. Plus we would get to see Xander and Giles and you know London” Buffy bit her lip and sat down on the couch “I can’t decide to move there without having been there.”

“Yeah ok but…” Willow hesitated “I’m so confused Buff, this is not a conversation that makes any kind of sense. Is it just because it’s 7 am or does the conversation actually not make sense? Since when do you want to join the council?”  
“Ahh yeah ok should have started there probably. Sorry. I have been thinking about it for a while actually. It just makes sense, I can do a lot of good there.” She sighed and laid down on the couch “I just thought that since the semester is ending maybe we could try to find some cheap flights and crash with the guys when we get there. So we would get a vacation and I could also use it to make up my mind.”  
“Ok yeah I guess, have you asked them if we can stay with them?” Willow still didn’t sound sure of the idea.  
“No I was thinking of surprising them, Giles has suggested in the past that I have a place to stay if I ever go to London. I just want to do this as soon as possible without thinking about it too much.” 

After a short pause Willow laughed a little bit “Ok this all sounds crazy but also it sounds great, I miss all of you and my plans for the summer are all depressingly responsible. Let’s do it, let me take a shower and you know wake up a little bit and I’ll call you back when I’ve done a quick check on how soon and how cheap we can get to London.” Buffy gave a little squeal of happiness.  
“Thank you, thank you, thank you Will. I’ll talk to you later.”


	2. The Trip

Buffy met a very hyper Willow at the airport, they ran into each other's arms laughing.   
“It’s so good to see you! It’s been so long we definitely should not let so many months go past without seeing each other!” Willow talked so fast Buffy had trouble keeping up. 

“I was expecting a really tired Willow not this” Buffy said raising an eyebrow at her friend “did you do nothing on your flight then drink coffee?”   
Willow laughed nervously at that “no I slept the entire flight but then I may have accidentally gotten a cup with caffeine when I asked for decaf while I was waiting for you. But it’s perfect! I was worried that I would be so tired that we wouldn’t be able to catch up on our flight but now I’m up and we can talk.” Buffy doubled over laughing and hugged Willow tightly when she had recovered from her laughter. “Yes I think we’ll catch up in about 5 minutes if you keep talking that fast. I missed you so much Will. Now let me get a coffee so I can keep up with you.”

They sat down in their seats at the back of the plane. Buffy was happy to see that no one sat in the window seat in their row and most of the people around them seemed to plan on sleeping for the duration of the flight, putting on eye masks and earphones as soon as the plane took off, this would allow her and Willow to talk a little more openly with each other. 

They started going over the basics, of course they talked regularly on the phone but they both knew it was easier going into details in person. Willow talked about the small coven she had joined that met close to the Berkley campus and the girl she had kind of dated for a few weeks at the beginning of the year and how she was still figuring out how she felt about serious relationships. Buffy talked about her classes at the community college, her string of first and second dates and slowly they moved towards the reason for their trip.

“So seriously Buffy when did you start to think about joining the council? When we left Sunnydale you said you wanted nothing more to do with” Willow hesitated looking around and adding “that whole world.”   
“Yes at that moment I was sure that I wanted to run as far away from it all as I possibly could.” 

Buffy lifted both the armrests and moved closer to Willow trying to make sure they could talk without being overheard.  
“It’s been almost 2 years and things have slowly changed. That moment, even if it was a big victory, was such a low point in my life. I was so tired, the two years leading up to it were pretty much all bad” she sighed and tried to organize her thoughts. She wanted Willow to understand but at the same time there was no reason to drag up all their worst memories of the hellmouth.

“My relationship to all of you guys was strained, I had been carrying so much responsibility for so long. All I wanted was my freedom, I never thought it was possible but then you gave me that opportunity” She smiled at Willow trying to make sure this conversation stayed as light as it possibly could. “And I realise now that Giles understood the situation much better than I thought he did. He assumed responsibility for the…erm…mini me’s.” They both chuckled at that “and the whole council and everything, he just sent me and Dawn off to find some peace and quiet and then even dad showed some responsibility. So I ended up on my own in New York not having to take care of anyone but me and I really thought it was all I needed.”

Willow had been sitting really still as if she was scared that Buffy would stop explaining if she remembered that Willow was there. “So what changed?” Willow asked in almost a whisper. Buffy realised that even though she thought she had fixed her relationship with Xander and Willow she probably didn’t confide in them enough if this is how Willow reacts when Buffy starts to open up.

“Well did I ever tell you that Giles asked me for a favor last fall?” Willow shook her head at that.  
“It took me and Giles a while to work through everything that happened between us those last two years in Sunnydale but sometime last summer we had reached a point where we were talking almost every day. Then one day he called me and he sounded all awkward. You know like the old Giles, he was stuttering and stammering and I swear I could hear him cleaning his glasses” that made Willow giggle.  
“You know Xander said that Giles had started wearing contacts?” Willow said suddenly and then her eyes went wide “Sorry that was unimportant please keep going what did Giles need.”

“Relax Will, I’m going to tell you the whole thing, you can talk. We are locked in here for 7 hours. What else am I going to do?” She smiled hoping to calm Willow down.  
“So yeah he ended up telling me that he had just sent a newly trained” she searched for a word “uhm student to New York to join an older student and their uhm teacher” maybe they should have had a conversation about slayers, watchers and councils somewhere other than a plane. Willow nodded to let her know that she was following along.   
“Ok yeah but the teacher had gotten really ill, the flu or something, and Giles asked if I would pick the girl up from the airport and bring her over and just you know make sure that they got off to a good start. “ 

Buffy remembered the conversation vividly, she had been so struck by how hard it seemed for Giles to ask her to do this. “I had like a knee jerk reaction and started to say no I don’t work for the council. But then I realised that I had no issue in helping. I didn’t want the girl to feel like no one was taking care of her. Mostly though I just wanted to help Giles and I really hated to hear that even though I thought we had gotten to such a good place he seemed to really think that I wouldn’t help.”

“Well I ended up going back a couple of times since the teacher was really sick and I didn’t want the girls to have to go out for their first times together without some support.”   
She watched Willows eyes widen again as she put it together.  
“So you went out with them” she seemed to be looking for the right words.  
“In the field yes” Buffy provided.  
“Wow ok I was not expecting that” Willow added.  
Buffy laughed softly and said “Neither was Giles, he was so worried that I had felt pressured to do it but I really didn’t, it felt nice to be able to help those girls. I could easily see myself in them.” She went quiet now, unsure of how much to say. 

They may not have spent a lot of time together recently but Willow still knew Buffy well enough to know that there was something that she was hiding. Willow raised an eyebrow and asked “What aren’t you telling me?” When Buffy just looked down and didn’t reply Willow kept on talking.  
“Ok I’ll figure this out. Let me see you talked about leaving Sunnydale, you spent that first year partly with your dad and Dawn and then you went to New York and started school. I remember that you changed those first few months in New York you kinda seemed to get back to yourself a bit. You started to talk to all of us more. You say that you fixed your friendship with Giles and then he asked you for a favor so you went back into the business so to speak” she grinned at Buffy “at least temporarily. You ended up liking going back.” Willow seemed to be summoning up courage to say something. “Ok I’m going to give you my opinion and you can just tell me if I’m all wrong this is just the feeling I have of the situation. I always thought you would end up going back in some form or another just for the same reason all of us always went back to helping you. We loved you and wanted to help you but it is also difficult to know what’s going on and just going on with your life when you know that other people are out there fighting and you could help.” Willow gave her a small smile and went on “Also you are really good at it and I think that makes everything more fun.” 

Buffy chuckled and decided that Willow knew her really well even when they had spent a year on opposite ends of the country. “You are right about everything Willow. ” she smiled at her best friend feeling like her heart had grown a size knowing how lucky she was to still have Willow in her life after everything.

“Ok but I still don’t get how that ends up with you wanting to work for the council and moving to London it still seems like a big leap from you liking spending some time with those girls.” Willow looked like she was trying to read the answer in Buffy’s eyes. “Well Giles and Xander are in London” Buffy said hoping it was enough.  
Willow nodded obviously deep in thought. “I don’t know maybe I’m wrong but I feel like I’m missing something, why wouldn’t you start smaller than the actual council.”

“I think I might be falling in love with Giles.”

Buffy burst out laughing at the look on Willow's face. Her eyes had gone wider than ever and her jaw almost touched her chest. When Buffy started laughing Willow’s look soured. “Was that a joke?”   
“No” Buffy gasped trying to contain her laughter “No I’m serious the look on your face was just priceless. I know it’s ridiculous but I swear it’s true”

Willow looked a little bit like a goldfish as she opened and closed her mouth repeatedly obviously trying to find the right words, she ended up with just a single word “How?”

Buffy thought about how to try to explain it “well like I said we started talking almost every day. When he asked me to help those girls it broke my heart when I realised that he didn’t feel that he could count on me to help him out. That made me suspicious about my own feelings because it felt a bit intense.” She wasn’t sure she made sense. “Then it felt so nice to hear how happy he was when I was willing to help. At some point I realised that there were days where I spent my entire day waiting for it to be time to talk to him again. I went on dates and caught myself thinking Giles would never say something like that and I don’t know.” she ran her hands through her hair in frustration “I don’t know how, I’m just pretty sure that it did happen.”

After some silence Willow started giggling and Buffy joined in. “Yes ok this is all ridiculous” Willow said when she found her voice again “but I will admit that it does sound like you are falling for him” Willow smiled “and hey I get it he is smart, sweet, handsome and well you have been his number one priority for most of your friendship no guy is going to measure up to that.” she grinned at Buffy and cocked an eyebrow.   
“So do you have a plan? Are you going to tell him?”  
“God no!” Buffy said to loudly disturbing the sleeping people around them “No I just want to spend time with him and see if I’m imagining this”


	3. Surprises All Around

Buffy had managed to convince Willow to change the subject as she was feeling really confused and needed a break. They spent the rest of the flight discussing Dawn’s boyfriend and comparing notes on what Xander had told them of his life in London. They had both finally fell asleep and woke up as the plane landed at Heathrow.

It was around 7 pm on a Saturday night when Buffy stood behind Willow as she knocked on Xander’s door. He comically blinked repeatedly when he opened the door and saw them. Soon the three of them were tumbling through the door in a group hug, laughing as Xander lost his balance and pulled the girls with him to the floor. 

They convinced him that they had just missed him and Giles and decided to blow off some post exam steam with a surprise trip to London.   
Both Willow and Buffy freshened up from the flight and they all had a beer each as they did a quick catch up. They admired Xander’s new eye, he had gotten a fake one a few months after moving to London when he grew tired of the attention the patch garnered him. It turned out that Xander’s apartment was tiny, he offered that one of the girls could sleep on his couch but suggested that they would probably be more comfortable sharing the guest bedroom at Giles’s apartment. 

They took a cab to Giles’ since the girls were not willing to drag their luggage around London.   
Buffy wasn’t prepared for how nervous she was standing outside the door. She rang the doorbell and held her breath. Giles opened the door and froze. Buffy looked him over, he looked much younger than he had the last time she saw him, evidently living away from a hellmouth did him good. He was dressed in jeans and a button down shirt with rolled up sleeves and no glasses.   
“Surprise” she said lamely trying to smile at him.   
He laughed softly at that, seeming to get over his catatonic reaction to finding her on his doorstep “I’ll say” after another second he reached out and pulled her to him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and he lifted her off the ground. She was disappointed when he put her down but he didn’t let her go but tucked her under one arm and looked at Willow “It’s so nice to see both of you” then he pulled Willow into a half hug with his free arm. “But what are you doing here? Is everything alright?” Buffy lifted her head to meet his eyes.  
“Everything is fine, we just missed the two of you.” Giles smiled warmly at her and then looked at Xander “Did you know?”   
“No got the same surprise on my doorstep an hour ago.” Xander replied, shrugging.

Buffy heard voices from inside the apartment “Are we interrupting something?” she asked Giles, feeling a bit worried that he might not be as happy to see them as she had been counting on.  
“I have a few friends over” he replied “you’ll join us won’t you?”  
Giles didn’t wait for an answer, he let Buffy and Willow go and pushed them lightly towards the door that led from the entrance into the apartment itself. He then grabbed one of the suitcases they had left behind them and gestured for Xander to take the other. 

The living room was covered in bookshelves with a big couch and four cozy looking leather armchairs. Buffy could easily picture Giles spending his time here reading and drinking tea. But at this moment there was a group of people sitting around the coffee table drinking wine and looking at the newcomers.   
“Willow,” a woman seated on the couch exclaimed as they entered. She was tall and slim with long blonde hair tied up in a messy bun “how nice to see you again” she smiled warmly at Willow.   
“Hi Liz, nice to see you too” Willow looked a little uncomfortable and glanced at Buffy.  
“I met Liz the last time I came to England with Giles,” she added quietly. Buffy guessed that this meant that Liz was one of the witches that had helped Willow after Tara’s death.

“I’ve just had a couple of surprise visitors from the States, I hope no one minds that they join us.” Giles said coming into the room behind them, putting their luggage to the side. He put an arm lightly around Buffy “this is Buffy, she was my slayer” he moved away and moved some chairs to fit them into the group. “And that’s Willow, I think most of you know Xander.” 

He offered the three of them drinks and then moved across the room and sat down on the couch next to the woman that had greeted Willow. He picked up a tumbler from the table and took a sip. “These are Lianna and John; they are watchers.” Giles gestured to the people sitting to the right of Xander. Lianna was petite, with long dark hair in thin braids, her eyes and skin were a deep chocolate colour. John was probably a bit younger than Giles; he was tall with dark hair and a prominent nose and a strong jaw.

“You all know Olivia” Buffy greeted Olivia who sat in an armchair between John and Giles. “And these are Liz and Ed” Giles finished the introduction with the two people who sat with him on the couch. “Liz is part of the coven in Devon, both of them are old friends of mine” Ed sat closest to Buffy, he had dark hair that was beginning to grey, he was very thin and much shorter than Giles.

“How do you know them?” Ed asked, looking at Olivia curiously.  
“Oh I made regular visits to Rupert when he moved to California.” Olivia said winking at John “Met them all on one of my last visits when we all got attacked by demons who stole our voices.” a small chill seemed to go through Olivia at the memory.  
“Just a normal week in Sunnydale.” Giles said, chuckling softly.

“So if I’m not mistaken these are then the two missing pieces of the group who changed….well everything.” John said, looking at Willow and Buffy.   
“Yes Willow would be the one who performed the spell that activated the potentials.” Giles looked at Willow with pride as he spoke. “And Buffy would be the one who spent 7 years teaching me how dysfunctional the relationship between the slayer and the council had become” Buffy was happy to see that the same pride remained in his eyes as he spoke of her.  
“That’s a very nice way of saying that I spent 7 years getting on your every nerve.” She teased him. “From what I’ve heard though you’ve managed some really impressive changes.”

Giles looked uncomfortable under the praise “Well I started with your vision and made sure I stayed on track by hiring everyone I knew who really hated the old council” he raised his glass to Lianna and John.  
“Oh so you weren’t watchers when Travers was in charge?” Willow asked.  
“No we both turned our backs on our so called calling” Lianna answered.   
“If you would have told me 15 years ago that I would one day join the council I would have called you mad” John added “well I would definitely never have believed that Rupert Giles would ever be head of council either.”

“God can you believe anyone trying to convince us 15, 20 years ago that Rupert would grow up to be head of council” Ed asked Olivia and she almost choked on her glass of wine.  
“Wait so I know why they would have been shocked by the idea but why would you? Did you know Giles back then?” Buffy asked the two watchers.

“No I never met him but the stories of the brilliant Rupert Giles who shamed the whole council by running away and turning to sorcery and well” Lianna paused and looked at Giles with a teasing smile “there were a lot of stories of what he had turned to.” Olivia and Ed both laughed loudly at that. “Lets just say everyone heard about him and everyone knew that even though he had been taken back he was the black sheep and would never be allowed to rise to a position of power within the council.”

“Ok so you say that” Xander interjected “but why did you get to be Buffy’s watcher then? It has never made sense that you got that position if none of them liked you.”  
Giles sighed “Well I can’t actually answer that but I have two theories if you want to hear them.”   
Buffy, Willow and Xander nodded in unison. “Even though getting to be a watcher to an active slayer is supposed to be an honor and most watchers talked about it as something they aspired to I often got the feeling none of them actually wanted to do it. So when Buffy came along and it meant moving to a small town on the other side of the world they kicked it to me, getting rid of me at the same time as getting one of their own out of having to live in California was just a bonus.” 

Giles finished the rest of his drink and sat back against the couch. “The darker theory is that since Buffy was discovered so late and had so little training they believed she wouldn’t live very long so they sent me out in hopes of killing two birds with one stone.“ He sighed again playing with the empty tumbler in his lap.

“Jeez didn’t think the answer would be that dark” Xander shifted awkwardly in his seat.  
“Do you two agree that you think many watchers didn’t actually want a slayer?” Buffy turned to look at the watchers.

John thought for a moment “I think so yes, I never really thought about it but I do remember listening to a lot of conversations between my mother and her friends. It never sounded as if they were actually that interested in it.” he looked at Lianna who just nodded along “and I understand it, most older people are not thrilled by teenagers to begin with.” John chuckled but then got a bit more serious as he went on “The idea of giving up your entire life and possibly your actual life for a person you have never met is hard to sell. I don’t think they thought much about the fact that they asked the same of the slayers.”

“They just sat around reading watcher diaries thinking about how they themselves wouldn’t want to give up so much.” Lianna looked deep in thought as she spoke “Can’t imagine how they reacted when they started reading yours.” she glanced at Giles with a small smile.

“Why were yours so scandalous?” Liz asked, turning to look at Giles on the couch.  
“Well I broke a lot of rules such as allowing these two to get involved” Giles gestured to Willow and Xander. “But I actually censored my entries.”   
Buffy had no better description for the look on Giles’ face than smug, like he still got some enjoyment from hiding things from the old council.

“No I’ve read them so I wasn't talking about what you censored.” Lianna raised an eyebrow and smiled “Although I would love to hear more about that.”  
That made everyone laugh a little.   
“I was talking about the fact that you made extraordinary allowances for her social life and I imagine you gave her even more leeway than you wrote.” Lianne was teasing Giles again “A watcher giving even more of himself than he was trained to do is unheard of. I think the council would have had a hard time finding replacements if the only thing new watchers read were your diaries.” Her tone went from teasing to reverence as she spoke. 

Buffy blushed thinking of those first years and how she had never thought of how much he gave of himself to make room for the free time she insisted on. She didn’t really realise that she had looked down and hunched her shoulders at the memory but of course Giles did.  
“Buffy you were sixteen, it felt hypocritical to deny you every chance of being a normal teenager with my history” when she looked up at him she saw that he had leaned forward on the couch with his elbows on his knees looking at her with a warm smile.

“Yeah you going to a dance or two is nothing compared to Ripper” Xander said laughing. Buffy expected Giles to become exasperated with Xander but he only chuckled, relaxed back on the couch and replied “Exactly.”  
There were odd looks between Lianna, John and Liz telling Buffy that they seemed not to know everything about Giles’ past but they didn’t ask about the nickname.

“So tell me more about censoring you watcher diaries, what else don’t we know?” Lianna said, refilling the wine glasses on the table.  
Giles chuckled, filled his tumbler and lent back stretching an arm across the back of the couch. Buffy eyed Willow trying to silently communicate with her whether this was simply him getting comfortable or if he was putting his arm around Liz.

“I just tried my best to make sure I kept my job and that Travers never felt compelled to visit or send some sort of delegation” Giles answered Lianna “I just wanted the council to stay in England.”

“Amen to that” Buffy said sincerely making everyone laugh.  
“But really Giles what did we all do that was bad enough for you to hide from the council?” Xander looked deep in thought.  
Giles looked at Xander in disbelief “You really can’t imagine?”   
“Well I know us helping out was not approved of but I know we made it in there eventually cause they knew about all of us when they came back that one time” Xander still seemed to be going over their history in his mind “what was the line, what was ok with the council and what wasn’t.”  
Giles chuckled “I skipped things like this group's insistence on relationships with vampires, werewolves and demons for instance.” he laughed at the looks on their faces.

“Sounds like your time in Sunnydale was very interesting” Ed said looking a bit disbelievingly at the group.  
“I think life with a slayer will always be a bit interesting, it was difficult those first few years when Olivia would visit and she didn’t know about that whole world.” Giles looked at Olivia shaking his head.  
“Yeah I do remember being highly suspicious of you repeatedly coming back with head injuries from your job as a librarian” she laughed “You and Ethan had both told me about magic and stuff I just obviously was not willing to believe any of it until I actually saw it.”

“Was it just them or did you also date monsters in Sunnydale?” Liz asked Giles with obvious curiosity.  
Giles laughed “No I limited myself to humans, at least to my knowledge”   
“He’d already learned his lessons before going to Sunnydale” Olivia said leaning back in her armchair laughing. Giles rolled his eyes but didn’t object.

“I have so many questions I don’t even know where to start” Buffy heard the excitement in Xander's voice. “You dated while you were in Sunnydale? Except for the couple of visits from Olivia and Mrs.Calendar we never saw you date anyone” Xander was speaking quickly as if he was trying to fit in all his questions before Giles stopped him “and what monsters did you date?”

Giles dragged a hand through his hair and looked like he really missed having his glasses at that moment. Buffy could just imagine him cleaning them while looking disapprovingly at Xander. But Giles didn’t scoff at Xander's questions, he just laughed softly and looked at Olivia.  
“I should have known better than letting you stay in a room with this lot” he chuckled and added “while you are capable of speaking at least. Should’ve realised the Gentlemen were actually doing me a favour back then.” 

”Wait he’s not serious?” Olivia stopped laughing and stared at Giles.  
“Oh he is, I made sure that these three knew as little as possible of my private life after they gagged at any mention of it” Giles chuckled as he looked from Olivia to Buffy “you haven’t forgotten how Buffy reacted when you first met?”   
“I just assumed she was jealous? She was actually that shocked at just finding a woman in your flat?” Olivia asked incredulously, causing Giles to laugh loudly.  
Buffy wanted to defend herself but she had been really shocked at finding Giles with a woman in his home.

Giles seemed to notice how uncomfortable the three of them had become by the subject.   
“It was my decision” he spoke softly trying to make eye contact with them “our friendship was always unequal because of the age gap, your relationships were at the school and mine were not, except for Jenny, which is why you were aware of her.” He shrugged and relaxed back as he saw them start to relax at his words. 

“But did you date any monsters as you say these did?” Lianna asked.  
“I’ve never had a relationship with any sort of demon, no. I sort of understood why they did. Having serious relationships with people who aren’t aware of our world is nigh impossible, at least when you live on a hellmouth and work with a slayer. Everyone in your life is in almost constant danger. That makes it easier to either stay away from anything serious or date people who have at least some experience with our world.” He gestured to the three of them “They chose the second option while I chose the first.”

A short silence followed his words as Buffy went over some of their time in Sunnydale imagining how often she had no idea of what was going on in Giles’ life. It was at least obvious that Olivia had visited more often than she thought and now it sounded like he had dated or at least slept with women she had never met. She looked over at Willow and Xander who both looked like they were thinking along the same lines.

“We should have had you three over to these gatherings sooner, we are learning a lot about our boss here.” John said grinning at Giles.  
“Yes let us never repeat this please” Giles replied dryly.   
“Well I hope there will be a repeat but I think I’ll call it a night” Lianna took the last sip of her wine and stood up. 

Everyone but the three of them left with Lianna. Giles walked them to the door leaving them alone in the living room.  
“Well that was informative.” Willow said quietly, moving to one of the armchairs.  
Buffy sat on the sofa cradling her glass of wine “Yeah this was not the night I expected.” Buffy replied in a whisper, not wanting Giles to hear them talk about him.

“So how long will you stay for?” Giles walked back into the room and took the same seat on the couch as before “and are you both staying here, I only have the one guest room but you are welcome to share?”   
“Yeah I was hoping to take you up on your offer of a bed, we are fine with sharing. Just trying to make sure we can afford our plane tickets back.” Buffy felt a bit awkward. “We only bought one way tickets, thought we might stay for a week or maybe more. Depending on how long you two will put up with us and when we can get cheap tickets back.”

“I don’t think either of us will grow tired of the two of you, you’re welcome to stay for as long as you want.” Giles smiled at them “how about we all meet up for breakfast here tomorrow and then Xander and I can give you a tour of London's main tourist attractions?”  
“That sounds” Willow's reply was interrupted by a big yawn “perfect.”  
“Let me show you to your room so you can get some sleep, my guess is that you’ll be jet lagged. Maybe we should meet up for lunch instead, let you sleep in a little bit.” 

Xander left with a promise of showing up with coffee and donuts around noon. Giles showed them to their room, it was small but the bed was big and looked really good to Buffy who hadn’t realised how tired she was.   
“Everything you need should be in the bathroom” Giles pointed to the door opposite theirs “my bedroom is upstairs if you need anything.” 

Willow dragged her suitcase further into the room leaving Buffy and Giles in the door. He placed his hand on her shoulder in that familiar way of his “I’m so happy you decided to visit.”   
At that he turned and walked back to the living room.


	4. Catching Up

“Buffy I swear I can hear you thinking” Willow said quietly “I’m guessing the night didn’t turn out how you had imagined?”  
Buffy burst out laughing quickly trying to quiet herself not wanting Giles to hear them talking. “I’ll say.”

They were lying side by side in the big bed in Giles’ guest bedroom, she’d heard Giles upstairs earlier so she was pretty sure he couldn’t hear them talking.

“I feel like when I rang his doorbell I was sure that I knew him better than anyone, about an hour later I feel like I barely know him.” She sighed and ran her hand through her hair.  
“This is Giles’ life if I hadn’t come along. He left all his friends and everything to go across the world to train me” she sighed “and all I did was struggle against him and complain. It was strange seeing how much younger and better he looks without the stress of having me in his life. How much happier he is here than he was in Sunnydale.”

“Buffy that’s not a fair comparison, most people would be happier anywhere other than Sunnydale” Willow said with a small smile “I’m sorry bad joke” she quickly added as Buffy frowned. “All I can tell you Buffy is that it always seemed like he would give up anything for you without hesitation, I don’t think you should feel bad about that. Maybe just be happy that he is happy now?” 

“Do you think he’s dating that Liz?” Buffy asked so quietly she wasn’t sure Willow would hear here.  
“He might be, there was something there, maybe just friendship but there was something that made me think that there was something.” Willow whispered back “I think you should sleep on it Buff we are both really tired and we did surprise him. Let's see what tomorrow brings ok?”  
“Ok you’re right, goodnight Will”


	5. A Day Together

Buffy woke up in an empty bed, she could hear the faint murmur of Willow and Giles talking somewhere in the apartment. She got up, quietly opened the door and listened. It sounded like Willow was talking about her new coven. Buffy decided to let them talk in peace and snuck to the bathroom for a shower.

In the shower she thought about her feelings and how she wanted to behave. She was still sure that she was falling in love with Giles. He was the first person she wanted to talk to when anything happened in her life, good or bad. Seeing him last night in that green shirt that brought out his eyes, with the top buttons unbuttoned showing some chest hair and sleeves rolled up had made her attraction to him clear. 

But last night had also made it clear that she did not know him as well as she thought. Their relationship had always been one sided. It had been about him helping her, him making sacrifices for her. She made up her mind, she would not talk to him about her feelings for at least a few days. She would do her best to get to know him and make sure that they were capable of a relationship that was equal.

She got dressed and went to the kitchen. Willow and Giles sat at the kitchen table each with a cup in their hands and Giles was laughing at something Willow had been saying. Willow was still in her pyjamas but Giles was dressed in jeans and a short sleeved henley.   
“I have to get used to this casual friday Giles” she smiled at him as she grabbed a cup of coffee and sat down at the kitchen table next to Willow.  
“Ha ha” he said dryly “now that you’re up Buffy one of you might call Xander and tell him he can join us when he wants.”  
“I’ll do it” Willow stood up from the table “then I’m gonna take a shower, see you in a bit.”

“Thanks for letting us stay here” she said as Willow left the room.  
“My pleasure” Giles smiled at her “did you sleep well?”   
“Yes really well actually, still feel a bit exhausted though” she stretched her arms in the air and then wrapped both palms around her cup of coffee “but I’ll be good after some coffee I think.”  
“The jet lag and time difference will probably take a couple of days, lets see if being a slayer helps you with that” he got up to refill his teacup “we’ll take it easy today, hopefully you’ll stay long enough so that you can fit the rest of what you want to see later in the week while Xander and I are at work.” 

“Yeah if I’m this tired I can’t imagine how Willow is feeling” Buffy replied.  
“I’ll see if we can’t take some time off this week so we can spend some time with you, I would hate to have you here all week and only get to see you in the evenings” Giles said with that soft smile of his.  
“I would love that, but I was actually hoping that you’d maybe be willing to let me go to work with you for a day or something” 

Giles stared at her with wide eyes “You want to go to the council?” he seemed to try to gloss over his initial shock and his tone turned more teasing “you want to check up on me, see if I’m taking proper care of the slayers?”  
“No I’m not worried about that, just want to see it all” she tried to sound nonchalant.  
“Well you’re more than welcome to join me or roam around or whatever you want” he furrowed his eyebrows “I have to admit that I’m surprised.”  
She chuckled, “I’m not asking for a job, I just want to see the operation you’ve got going on over there.”   
“Well just name a time and I’ll make sure I’m free to show you around.” 

“So any other requests for your time here?” he asked as he offered her a refill on her coffee.  
“You know I hadn’t really thought about it, there wasn’t really a plan. We just decided to jump on a plane and the only plan was ‘let's see Xander and Giles’ ” she smiled at him “Some quality time with my watcher would be appreciated I guess if we can tear ourselves away from Willow and Xander.”   
“I think that can be arranged” he sat back down and squeezed her hand for a second.

Willow joined them in the kitchen and Xander showed up a few minutes later with doughnuts. He asked Giles for a fry up and they ended up spending the next hour and a half preparing and eating food. Xander told them stories of the slayers and his work as a watcher and Willow talked about her ideas of what she wanted to do after her graduation next year. Buffy and Giles mostly just listened.   
“It feels really nice to have the group back together” Buffy said as the conversation slowed down as everyone finished eating. “Yeah” came the smiling reply from the group.

They spent the rest of the day slowly walking around some tourist attractions. Buffy didn’t notice when she did it but she found herself walking next to Giles having linked their arms at the elbow.   
“I just can’t tell you how relieved I was when she told me she wanted to retire” 

“Who’s retiring?” Willow asked, she was walking next to Xander a few steps ahead of Buffy and Xander.  
“My secretary, after 50 years at the council.” Giles said and then muttered “we should probably find a place for her in the artefacts department.”   
“Tell the truth Giles, did you bribe her to leave?” Xander asked in a mock serious tone  
“Was she that bad?” Willow asked.  
“Oh she was fine” Giles replied “she did her job well and hiring into a secret establishment is always difficult.”  
“Why were you relieved then?” Willow looked back at Giles with a confused look.

Giles was searching for words so Buffy decided to answer “She had known Giles since he was a kid” she giggled at the thought of the head of the council being intimidated by an old woman “she treated him like he was ten years old apparently.”   
Xander laughed at that “Yeah she didn’t really make Giles look all boss like when she always called him boy.” 

“If I visit the council this week will I get to meet her?” Buffy asked excitedly “I have been listening to you complain about her for over a year it would be tragic to miss her”   
Giles chuckled “Yes she’ll be training her replacement for the next week or two.”   
They continued walking as Xander and Willow asked about her plans to visit the council and they ended up making plans for both Willow and Buffy to visit the council after lunch the next day.

They spent a few hours going between Buckingham Palace, Westminster and Trafalgar square, they stopped for photos at each place and some random places in between. They went for beers at a pub and then walked around an area with some magic shops that Willow was very excited to visit. Finally they picked up some chinese food and walked back to Giles’ and spent the rest of the night talking and eating around the coffee table. 

“I know it’s only 9 but I’m exhausted” Willow looked half asleep already curled up on an armchair.  
“Yeah I can imagine the jet lag from San Francisco to London is a lot to deal with” Xander said, standing up from the couch “I’ll head home and see you all tomorrow. Allow you two to catch up on sleep.”

After Xander left, Giles and Buffy cleaned up as Willow got ready for bed.   
“You coming Buff?” Willow stood in the doorway to the kitchen yawning and looking bleary eyed.  
“I’m not really tired, but I’ll do my best not to wake you up when I come in,” Buffy said as she dried the glass Giles had just finished washing.  
“Don’t worry about it, between my exhaustion and my earplugs I don’t think you could wake me if you tried” Willow yawned again “well good night then.”

They continued washing up in silence.  
“Are there any vampires around here?” Buffy asked Giles when they were finishing up.  
He raised an eyebrow at her “You want to patrol?”   
“I have all this extra energy, it’s like my body doesn’t know how to deal with the time difference.” She shrugged and walked back into the living room and sat down on the couch “I’ve kinda been on edge all night.” 

Giles thought for a moment as he followed her out of the kitchen “Well you’re not likely to find much around here but there’s always a chance in the parks.” he sat down in an armchair next to the couch.  
“Want to just go for a walk, see if I sense anything close by” Buffy asked sitting up straighter feeling excited by the thought of patrol with Giles.  
“Do you patrol regularly?” his tone was more serious than she was expecting.

She furrowed her brow at him confused by his seriousness “Not regularly no, I went out with the slayers a few times last fall and then I don’t know, I go when I feel like it. Maybe every other week or something.”  
“I don’t like it Buffy” Giles sounded almost angry “You shouldn’t be patrolling if you are not training. It’s not smart.”  
“Are you kidding me Giles? I’ve been a slayer for almost a decade.” she started raising her voice but then remembered Willow so she took a deep breath to try to calm down. How could Giles think after all this time that she couldn’t take care of herself.

Giles sighed and moved from his chair to sit next to her on the couch. He took one of her hands in both of his and looked into her eyes. “Buffy I didn’t mean to sound like I was scolding you I’m sorry. I know that you are capable.” He squeezed her hand a little and stroked the back of it with his thumb. “It gave me peace to know that you were out of this whole world of ours.” he looked away and sighed. He let go of her hand and leaned back on the couch.

“I’m not sure you realise how much I worried about you every time you went out on patrol.” He didn’t look at her as he spoke “I thought that time was over, you never mentioned that you were patrolling in any of our conversations.” she opened her mouth to reply but he looked up and went on.

“I’m building the whole council around the idea that no slayer goes out alone, that they go together with at least one other slayer and that they are well trained and that their watcher goes with them regularly so that their training can have the right focus.” he took her hand again and leaned forward as if he was trying to convince her of his point “I did all this because it’s what I would have wanted for you back in Sunnydale, so that no one would have to fear that every patrol could be your last.” 

He stopped talking and looked down at their hands.  
“I feel like I should be apologising here” Buffy said quietly “but I’m not sure what I’m apologising for.”  
Giles chuckled, stroked his thumb once across the back of her hand and then let it go and started to get up.  
“No wait Giles don’t go” she grabbed his hand and pulled him back down on the couch.

“I am sorry that you worried about me back then” he started to interrupt her “no wait let me finish. I also know that both of us know that there was nothing I could do back then that would have made you stop worrying.” Buffy was not finding the right words “i’m bad at this you just have to live with my bad explanations ok?” she laughed at herself and Giles laughed too.

“I don’t know why I didn’t tell you that I was going out patrolling again. I didn’t realise that I was hiding it from you but I get now that I was, it should have come up in our conversations. My feelings regarding this whole slayer thing are still just complicated.” she sighed and looked down unsure if she had said what she wanted to say and if Giles would understand what she meant. 

She felt his hand on her shoulder and she looked up to see him smiling at her.   
“I know Buffy, I know it’s complicated and I also know that you weren’t intentionally putting yourself in danger. Will you promise me though that if you want to keep going out when you go back that you’ll either go with the slayers or at least do some training.” he gently squeezed her shoulder “I need to know that you are being careful.” 

“I promise” that was a complicated promise to make since she really didn’t want to train with another watcher and she didn’t actually want to go back to New York but she knew what he needed of her and it was easy to promise to be more careful.

“You still want to go out? I’ll come with you” his smile seemed genuine.  
“Sure, maybe I just need a walk”

They got up and put on their coats. Giles found crosses and stakes for them while Buffy wrote a note to Willow in case she woke up.   
They walked to a couple of smaller parks nearby, they found plenty of people out enjoying one of the season's first warm evenings but no vampires or demons.   
Instead they just walked and chatted quietly. Buffy told Giles about those times she had gone on patrol, how different it had been compared to Sunnydale. 

“I was used to slaying 1 or 2 vampires a night at least, then there I am in a huge city and I could go a whole night without a single vampire”  
“My guess is that you weren’t looking in the right places.”   
“What? First you doubt my ability to patrol safely and now I don’t even know where to patrol?”   
Giles laughed at her “It’s just that in Sunnydale you never had to go very far, you could search out the ones that would possibly rise and the others would most often simply come to you.”

Buffy couldn’t disagree, she never had to go far in Sunnydale to find something to slay.  
“Well in the bigger cities like New York or here in London you can of course visit the cemeteries in search of fresh graves, but there are too many people buried each day and too many cemeteries. Around here you would probably find more vampires around the nightclubs and the busiest places of the city. Easier to blend in and easier pray.”  
She had to admit he made sense “Ok so maybe you council people know a thing or two” she teased him.

When they got back to the apartment Buffy had started to yawn.   
“It seems like the walk helped” Giles said laughing at her comically large yawns.  
“Yeah it seems like” Buffy hung her coat up and started to walk to the bedroom.  
“I thought I might pick the two of you up here around 12 and we could go to lunch and then go back to the council” Giles said.  
“Sounds like a plan, good night Giles.”   
“Good night Buffy” that soft smile played on his lips and she got butterflies in her stomach.  
Buffy smiled back and walked to her room, listening as he climbed the stairs.


	6. A Minor Freak Out

“What are you doing?” Willow walked into their bedroom and looked quizzically at Buffy who had spread all the contents from her suitcase out on the bed.  
“Freaking out about what to wear, what does it look like” Buffy held up a dress she couldn’t even understand why she brought on the trip. 

“I have nothing that is suited for an office, I have nothing that can survive the scrutiny of everyone looking at me as ‘The Slayer’, I have absolutely nothing to wear for this visit.” Buffy spoke so fast she was out of breath when she stopped and she slumped on the bed in defeat.

“Ok Buffy let's wait with this decision until you’ve had some coffee, we still have time before we have to go” Willow pulled her up from the bed and dragged her to the kitchen. She then poured a cup of coffee and handed it to Buffy. 

“So did you stay up late last night?” Willow asked in a tone that reminded Buffy of her mother asking her about boys.   
Buffy laughed at her “Is that all you’re trying to ask me?”  
“Hey you told me you were falling for him, is it wrong that I’m curious what happens when I leave you alone?”

“I need to give it some time now, I just want to spend some time with him and see if this new, relaxed, life full of friends Giles has a place in his life for mer.” Buffy got more quiet the longer she spoke.   
“I don’t think there will ever be a version of Giles that doesn’t prioritise you above everything else.” Willow answered quickly.  
“That’s also kind of the point” Buffy started but then gave a frustrated groan and stood up from the table and started pacing around the small kitchen.

“It’s all so strange. Here I am having all of these existential thoughts about where I fit into his life. If we could ever be together without me disrupting everything for him.” she ran both hands through her hair and continued her pacing “you know all these thoughts about a long term thing, and for all I know he would just laugh at me for even suggesting that there could ever be anything romantic between us.”

She walked out of the kitchen feeling claustrophobic.  
“Well Buff the rules are different when you are talking about someone you have known for almost 10 years.” Willow said following her out of the kitchen.  
Buffy sat in an armchair and pulled her knees up under her chin and wrapped her arms around herself.  
“I know, I just feel like I’m trying to process imaginary feelings. Imagining how I would feel about something, imagining how he would react and feel.” 

Willow sat on the coffee table across from her and placed a hand on her arm.   
“How can I make such a huge decision based on information that is fake.”  
“I’m sorry Buffy, I hate that you’re feeling like this.” Willow moved to the couch and was obviously thinking hard. Buffy saw her brows furrow as she stared off into the middle distance.

“Ok let's at least start with what we know is real, ok?” Willow asked.  
“What do you mean?”   
“Well your feelings right here, right now. Don’t think about what could be and what effects anything could have. Do you actually believe that you are falling in love with him?” Willow was serious but her face was still soft. Buffy knew she wouldn’t judge her no matter where this conversation went. She reminded herself to be thankful to have these people in her life.

“Yes I do, I can’t really tell you when it happened or even when I realised it. He is so important to me and when I’m not with him or talking to him I’m thinking about what I’ll tell him the next time I’ll talk to him or wondering about what he’s doing.” Buffy sighed knowing she was sounding extremely cliche.  
“I know that he will support me and I want to support him in whatever he wants to do.” she added trying to explain this to Willow was harder than she expected.

“Ok that’s a really good start at least. Uhm so you fell in love with him during phone conversations so I kind of have to ask if anything changed when you met him.” Willow blushed which helped Buffy understand what she was asking.  
“You’re asking if I’m attracted to him” Buffy hesitated slightly looking for a reaction from Willow.

“Well yeah, like he said the other night you did do the whole gag thing whenever he was with a woman back in the day.”   
“I was young and he was older and I don’t know. Yeah I was definitely not attracted to him then.” Buffy hugged her legs closer to her and wondered how much to admit to her friend.  
“But now” she trailed off.

Willow giggled “Now you are?”  
“Oh yeah, butterflies every time he touches me in any way, all sorts of thoughts that 16 year old Buffy would be shocked by.” They both broke out in loud giggles. “God he just looks really good now that he’s not wearing tweed or I don’t know he just looks really good now.”  
Willow laughed a little “You sound like you’ve got it bad Buff, as strange as it is to think of you falling for Giles I for one am convinced.”

“Well that’s something” Buffy said dryly.  
“Not that you had to convince me” Willow sounded agitated “I just meant that you managed to get your feelings in order and make them you know clear to an outsider.”  
“I get it Will, sorry” Buffy gave Willow what she hoped was a reassuring smile. “I still feel like I’m going to cave under all the future thoughts going around my head.”  
“I don’t know if any of those are going to help you Buffy” Willow said her tone gentle “I think you just have to talk to Giles”  
Buffy’s heart started pounding at the thought and when she spoke she was louder than she expected. “I can’t talk to him about this, are you kidding me what if” Willow interrupted her by laying her hand back on Buffy’s forearm.

“I know it’s scary but you said it yourself you can think about this for weeks but like you said you’d be basing your decision on imaginary feelings” she smiled at Buffy trying to comfort her “as long as you are sure that this is how you feel then you should talk to Giles.”   
Buffy stood up and started pacing again.  
“The two of you have worked out a lot of issues through the years, I think you could work through him rejecting you if it came to that.” Willow winced at the face Buffy made.  
“I don’t know if he’ll reject you but that is the worst case scenario here right? So talk to him and let him have time to think and try to discuss some of the things that are worrying you.” 

Buffy kept up her pacing, on the next lap she noticed the time and slumped down in the next chair. “Ok he’ll be here soon so one crisis at a time. I’ll deal with clothes and then the council and then I’ll see if I can ever actually start that conversation with him.”


	7. The Council

“Girls, you ready?” Buffy could hear Xander yell from the living room.   
“We’ll be right out!” she called back and looked to Willow for one last approval of her look.  
“Buffy you look great please stop worrying about this, just imagine that we are going to lunch and ignore the rest” Willow replied exasperated.

Buffy had ended up in a very plain outfit, jeans, boots, soft white button down shirt and tank top underneath. It looked professional but she still felt attractive in it. She followed Willow into the living room stopping when Willow wolf whistled.  
“Look at the two of you in your suits” Willow pretended to fan herself down looking at Xander and Giles. Buffy looked them over; they were both wearing well fitting, expensive looking suits. Xander’s in dark blue and Giles in light grey.   
Xander did an exaggerated twirl and then fixed his tie “You have to look good in the office.”

“I think we’ll be a bit underdressed today Will” Buffy said looking down at the outfit she had been happy with a minute ago.   
“You both look great. Now let's go to lunch, I'm starving” Xander said as he started to push Willow to the exit.

They went to a small sandwich shop that Xander seemed to know well.  
“What’s the plan? Let these two roam around the council and see how much damage can be done in a day or?” Xander asked Giles who laughed.

“Well I thought I’d have someone show Willow around the research and magic departments” Giles raised a questioning eyebrow to Willow.  
“That sounds great” she smiled back at him.  
“We’ve managed to acquire a great amount of books over the past 2 years, I think you’ll love the library” he looked down and then teasingly added “I’ll make sure to find someone very charming to show you around in the hope you’ll consider joining Xander in his career choice.”  
Willow stuck her tongue out at him “I said I wouldn’t consider it until after my degree.”  
“I’ll get either you or Dawn to join before you know it, hopefully both.” 

“Wow you have plans to get the whole group back together I hear” Buffy was surprised. She knew that Giles had offered Willow a position within the council but she had never heard him talk about hiring Dawn.

“Well I know these two very smart women one with an unparalleled aptitude for magic and the other is quickly becoming an exceptional linguist, I would be remiss if I did not try to get them to join the cause.” he smiled “plus if I convince either of them I’m sure it would be easier to convince you” he winked at her which cause a warmth to spread throughout her body. She tried to laugh in reply and hoped it had sounded genuine. 

Once they got to the council they all got on an elevator together, on the sixth floor they got off leaving Xander behind. They were in a small hallway that had one door on either end, they followed Giles to the door on the right, he opened it for them revealing a large library.

“Wow” Buffy heard Willow breath beside her “You can just leave me here and pick me up next week ok?”   
Giles chuckled “We’ll see about that” this is Charlie. He gestured toward a young, blonde woman who was walking towards them. “She joined us last year, she agreed to show you around.”  
“This is Buffy and that’s Willow, the one I told you about.” The girls all greeted each other.  
“Would you just show her to my office when you’re done?” He asked Charlie “That is if you can ever convince her to leave here.”   
“Certainly Mr.Giles” Charlie replied in an accent Buffy was not used to.

“We’ll see you two later then” he gestured Buffy back to the elevator. As they closed the door behind them Buffy looked back to see Charlie and Willow already deep in conversation.   
“You look the part you know” she said to Giles as the door closed.  
He looked down with a confused look “What part is that?”  
“Mr.Giles, head of council” she said in an important voice. “Nice suit, walking tall, I don’t know you just look all important and impressive around here.”

He laughed “as opposed to how I look usually”  
“Hey I didn’t mean that, take a complement will you?” she bumped her shoulder to his.  
“Thank you, I think. I tried to make them stop the whole ‘Mr.Giles’ thing, but it didn’t stick.” but I think it helps when I’m trying to convince people to make the changes I want, to try to look, what did you say? Important?”   
“Yeah” Buffy replied softly “you look like someone people should listen to.”

They got off the elevator again, now they were in a hallway with a few desks, some were empty but the one on their left was staffed by a woman who looked to be at least 90.  
“That has to be your secretary right?” Buffy whispered.  
Giles just nodded and put his hand on her lower back to guide her to his office.

Buffy wondered if she was imagining that he was touching her more. She thought that maybe she just noticed it more now.  
“Afternoon Mrs Clarke” Giles said dryly walking past her and opening the door for Buffy.  
“Rupert the new girl is coming by in an hour and Mr.Barker has been calling repeatedly.” Mrs.Clarke looked over Buffy disapprovingly.  
“Thank you Mrs.Clarke, I’ll call him back and just let me know when Miss Lewis gets here.”

“So she didn’t get the important Mr.Giles memo?” Buffy chuckled as Giles closed the door behind them.   
He just rolled his eyes and offered her a seat. His office was big with a dark wood desk and large bookshelves. On the other side of the room was a floor to ceiling window.  
“Wow ok I’m starting to believe you don’t just look it, you actually are important” Buffy teased him. Giles just rolled his eyes again.  
“Nice office Giles” she smiled at him.  
“Thank you” he sat in his chair behind the desk.

“I’m sorry but do you mind if I just start by returning this phone call. You’re welcome to just go roam around, I’ll tell you what floors are of interest to you.” he looked at her apologetically.  
“That’s fine, I’d rather get the personal tour from you” she smiled at him.

As he dialed she got up to admire his view.   
Giles was not talking much on the phone, mostly just listening but from what he said he did not sound happy.  
“I’m afraid I have to go to an emergency meeting.” he did not look happy either.

“What’s going on?” she walked over and perched on his desk.  
“There is a group of demons heading to Oxford. A prophecy was overlooked, so in short another apocalypse on the horizon.” Giles turned his chair a little to face her and picked up a pen from his desk and started to twirl it in his hand.  
“Ok so you send a group of Slayers and watchers and they take care of it, it’s what we do right?”

“This is a big group of demons, reports indicate at least 30.” he threw the pen back on the desk and ran a hand through his hair. “We know what they want and where it is and there is already a team on it’s way to Oxford to retrieve the artefact and bring it back here to see if we can destroy it. But since we didn’t find the prophecy earlier we have less than a day to get a group of slayers to intercept the demons before they reach Oxford.”

There was a knock on the door and a man around Buffy’s age entered.  
“Mr.Giles everyone is gathering in the conference room Mr.Barker is ready to begin.” he spoke quickly and looked at Buffy as he talked with furrowed brows.  
“I’ll be right there Alan” 

Alan nodded, not really looking away from Buffy and backed out of the office.  
“I’m sorry about this, why don’t you try to find Willow or if you go to the third floor you should find some new slayer recruits in training.” He got up as he talked and straightened his tie and ran a hand through his hair again.

“Can I come to the meeting?” she asked still sitting on the desk “I’ll stay in the back and do my best to keep quiet”  
That got Giles laughing “I highly doubt that you could keep your opinions on the subject to yourself. But you are welcome to join and if you want to be an advocate for the slayers I would appreciate it.”   
“Sounds like a plan.”

The conference room was on the same floor, Giles guided her down the hall and followed her into the room. There were about 20 people in the room, both young and old. The men wore suits and the women were either wearing pantsuits or skirts and jackets. Buffy instinctively ran a hand down her shirt, regretting her choice of clothes.

Giles bent down behind her to whisper in her ear “Believe me they will be more intimidated by you, relax.” He put his hand on her upper arm “you have more experience than the rest of the room combined.”  
Buffy took a deep breath and managed to relax a little bit. Giles pulled a chair out for her and then sat down next to her.

As soon as Giles sat down the room went very quiet. Buffy noticed that almost everyone seemed to be either staring at her or trying their best to not look like they were.  
The man standing at the other end of the room next to a big screen cleared his throat and when everyone had sat down and focused on him he looked to Giles who nodded.

Buffy guessed this was Mr.Barker. He pressed a button on a remote and a map appeared on the screen. He started telling everyone about the different reports they’d received. The demons had been spotted here and there for the past 2 days, getting closer to Oxford and each report made it seem like their numbers were getting bigger over time.

“We expect a report from the team sent to retrieve the artefact within an hour or two.” Barker concluded. A woman stood up next to Barker and he handed her the remote.  
“We will need a large group of slayers to tackle this problem. We have contacted Miss Walker who is stationed in Glasgow with 4 slayers and they will be traveling towards Oxford as soon as possible. Our watchers in Paris and Dublin are both dealing with threats of their own but will stay in contact if they believe they can assist.” 

The woman straightened up and turned off the screen behind her.  
“There are only 2 slayers inhouse that have received more than 6 months of training. If we send them to join the ones from Glasgow that's still only 6 slayers against at least 30 demons probably more since the reports indicate their numbers growing over time.”

“If we just send more of the inhouse slayers we can offset their lack of training with the number of slayers. We have 20 inhouse slayers at the moment if I’m not mistaken?” An older man sitting a few seats away from Giles interjected.  
“We are not sending slayers with less than a month's training against these demons, they have barely faced anything.” 

“How many slayers have had at least 3 months of training Miss Taylor?” Giles asked.  
“5 including the 2 that I mentioned earlier that have finished 6 months.”   
“Ok that gives us 9 assuming no other watcher manages to travel here within the time we have.”

“Ten.” Buffy said.  
Giles turned to her, he tilted his head in question.  
She gave him a firm nod and a smile in return. Buffy noticed that some chatter had started in the room but everyone stopped when Giles turned back to the group.

“Ok so we have 10 slayers, 3 of whom have very limited training. What do we know about these demons, are they vulnerable to magic, any specific strengths and weaknesses?” Giles addressed the group at large.  
The woman who had been speaking looked a bit awkward when she started to answer “Excuse me sir but uhm who is this?” She gestured to Buffy.

“Oh sorry everyone this is Buffy Summers” Giles said nonchalantly turning to Buffy and smirking as there was a small gasp from several people and then a lot of chatter.  
“She is here only as a guest but since she has offered us her immense experience I will gladly accept. Now back to these demons.”

For the next hour they were briefed on the demons weaknesses and strengths, tactics were debated and they got word from a watcher in Madrid who was sending 2 of his 4 slayers to help.   
When the meeting was over Giles asked Buffy to go down to the training area to meet some of the slayers.  
“I need to take care of some paperwork but I’ll meet you down there shortly, Miss Taylor can show you how to get there.” He said the last part to the woman who had appeared next to Buffy.

Miss Taylor introduced herself as Rebecca and showed Buffy to the elevators.   
“It really is an honour to meet you” she said as the doors closed.  
“I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say that before” both Buffy and Rebecca laughed.  
“This group of girls is great, I’m not exactly sure if they have all been called in but you should be able to meet with all of them before you leave for Oxford, my guess is it would be beneficial for everyone if you could have a chance to train together even if it’s just for a short while.”

Rebecca led her to the training room, it was big and well equipped, ten girls were sparring in the center of the room.  
“Excuse me girls” Rebecca called out, Buffy noticed two people in their late twenties stand up from a bench in the back.   
“I assume everyone has been briefed on the situation at hand?” Rebecca asked and everyone nodded.  
“Well it has been decided that anyone who has at least 3 months of training should go assist in Oxford” Rebecca smiled at Buffy and added “you will have the honour of working with Miss Buffy Summers who will be joining you in Oxford.”

This was the second time today that her name was met with gasps, these were a bit more excited than the ones in the conference room. She greeted the slayers and soon she had removed her shirt and was sparring with each in turn.

“Yeah it’s obvious you haven’t been training” she heard Giles say dryly behind her.  
She evaded a blow from the slayer she was fighting and twirled to hit Giles, but he easily blocked her blow.  
“Huhh seems like you have been” She said raising an eyebrow.  
He just shrugged and then indicated that she should continue the sparring session.

Some time later Giles called for them to stop.  
“We should all go and get ready. Go to the weapons storage and let them know which weapons you prefer. Someone will come get you when it’s time to leave, it will probably take two or three hours for the magic department to prepare everything”  
This was met with a chorus of “Yes sir” from the slayers and their trainers and then everyone left leaving Buffy and Giles alone.

“You’re coming to?” she asked tentatively.  
“What do you think I send my slayer off to battle alone?” he smiled at her and removed his jacket and tie and started to circle her slowly.  
She took up a fighting stance and they sparred for a while, he gave her a few notes but mostly they were quiet. 

“Ok so I leave you alone for a couple of hours and you are fighting each other with plans to go off and fight a herd of demons?” They stopped sparring when they heard Willow, she had just walked in with Charlie.  
“Ha ha” was Giles’ reply as he handed Buffy a towel and a bottle of water.  
“Just making sure Buffy is ready for battle” Buffy started to object but then noticed the smirk on his face and just rolled her eyes.

“We’re going to go and pack some stuff, do you want to go back with us or stay here longer and leave with Xander later?” Giles asked her “You’re allowed to just wander around if you want.”  
“I think I’ll stay, you sure you don’t need some help with this issue.”   
“You can go to the magic department and offer help if you want.” He smiled at her “I’ll make sure Xander knows to not leave without you.”


	8. The Start of a Confession

“Is everything ok Buffy?” Giles was driving them back to the council. They had gone to the apartment, eaten some leftovers and packed some extra clothes since they knew they might stay in Oxford for a night or two. Giles had spent most of the time on the phone. Often putting it on speaker phone so Buffy could know what was going on and have some input on the planning.

“Yeah I’m fine, why?”  
“You’re quiet and well I guess this wasn’t what you meant to spend your vacation on” he looked worried.  
“Giles I’m fine, I’m happy to help and it was actually fun to work with the slayers today. My plan for this vacation was to spend time with you so as I see it’s all going according to plan” that got her the laughter she had hoped for.

“So why are you so quiet?”  
“Just thinking, nothing important” she hesitated and then decided there were some things she needed to know if she ever intended on talking to him about her feelings.  
“Can I ask you something?”  
“Of Course Buffy” he narrowed his eyes, evidently surprised by her question.

“The group that was at your place the other night, do you meet up often?”  
He looked very surprised by the question, “We and a few others try to meet up at least once a week. Why?”  
“How did that group become you know a group? I know you knew Ed and Olivia way back when how do the rest fit together.”  
“John and Lianna were at the same pub as us one night and joined us and simply became part of the group. Liz and a few others from the coven joined after the coven helped the council out last year. I’ve of course known them for years.” 

Buffy thought for a moment, if she asked him outright about dating one of the women in the group would he figure out what she was thinking about and if she asked him about being lonely in Sunnydale would that cause an awkward conversation right before a big fight.

“Why are you asking?”  
“Are you and Liz dating?” Buffy bit her lip, she hadn’t actually made up her mind to ask she had just blurted it out.  
Giles was just stopping at a red light and used the opportunity to look over at Buffy with an amused look.  
“If I said yes should I expect you to react the same way you did when you found Olivia in my flat?” he raised an eyebrow.

“No, this is very different from that.” Buffy’s heart felt like it had fallen to her stomach, he had basically just said yes to the question.

“I’m just teasing you Buffy, no Liz and I aren’t dating. Why do you ask?” Giles spoke softly like he was worried that she would freak out like she did back then.  
“There was just something that made me wonder.” She started, not looking at him “and then that got me wondering if you would tell me if you were dating. I realised that night that you probably wouldn’t at least if it wasn’t serious but I wondered if you would tell me if it was serious.” Buffy realised she was rambling and bit her lip hoping Giles would change the subject.

“No I guess I don’t tell you about dates I go on” Giles seemed to think about it for a while.  
“What has changed?” he asked suddenly. When she looked at him with a confused look he added “What has changed since you discovered Olivia in my flat?”

“Oh uhh I grew up mostly. I don’t think I would have reacted that badly if I hadn’t had a horrible couple of days leading up to it.” she looked at him raising an eyebrow “and if she had been wearing more than a shirt.”  
Giles laughed “Yes I should probably have given you the benefit of the doubt there but that exchange did probably affect my decision about continuing to hide my private life from you” 

They pulled up to the council and when they got inside a group of people were standing just inside the entrance.  
Buffy saw Willow and Xander to the side and went over to them.  
“We want to go with you!” Willow said as soon as Buffy got close enough to hear her.  
Buffy turned around to see that Giles had not managed to follow her and was surrounded by people.  
“You sure guys?”  
“Yes, I know I can help with a few spells we went over this afternoon and Xander can help with the girls, that many slayers you’ll need more watchers.” Willow looked to Xander “Especially ones that we know can handle the pressure”.

Buffy smiled at them, the thought of the whole group back together in the fight against evil giving her a sense of nostalgia.  
“Check with the big boss man” she said “not my call but it sounds like having you two along would improve our odds.”

She turned around and caught Giles’ eye, he waved her over. Willow and Xander followed her over to where he stood with some slayers Buffy had not met before and a couple of watchers.  
Giles introduced everyone and Buffy got her third gasp of the day. 

“There has been a change of plans” Giles said looking at the three of them. “According to the latest reports the demons have slowed down, which gives us some extra time. So we will be leaving early tomorrow morning, that allows the magic department some extra time for preparations and allows for 3 more slayers to join us.”

“Sounds like a plan, can I take an hour or so tonight with all the slayers we have? Try to train as a group?” Buffy asked Giles mostly hoping that the slayers wouldn’t be star struck by her if they got to kick her ass.  
“I think that’s an excellent plan.” Giles smiled at her looking proud.

Giles accepted Willows and Xanders offer of joining them in Oxford although Buffy was sure that the three of them had bullied them into it.  
He made an announcement to the entire group telling them of the changes. He sent Buffy and the other slayers up to the training room with 4 watchers to help out.  
She saw Willow head off with some people from the magic department while Xander and Giles would spend the evening researching and planning.

Training went well with the younger slayers, after a while the watchers felt comfortable enough to correct her form and she could feel herself slip back into old moves. She wouldn’t admit it to anyone but she may have been a little rusty.  
After 2 hours Giles, Willow and Xander showed up in the training room. Giles ordered the watchers and slayers to leave and make sure to get enough sleep. 

“You ready to leave Buff? We’re kind of starving” Willow asked looking tired.  
“Uhm not yet, Giles do you mind staying a little longer?”  
“No that’s fine with me, we had an early dinner so why don’t you two go along?” Giles handed Willow the keys to his apartment. “I’ve another set in my office,” he explained.  
Willow looked over to Buffy who just nodded at her. 

“So are you happy with the plan for tomorrow?” Buffy asked Giles as she started stretching.  
He laughed “Yes it’s a fine plan, but you know as well as I that plans usually fly out the window before we even arrive.”  
“How was training?” he leaned against a pommel horse close by.  
“It was good, the girls are great actually” she smiled at him “all well trained and talented.”  
“But?”  
“They are teenagers” she grimaced “how did you stand us Giles?” 

Giles barked a loud laugh at that. “It wasn’t easy” he stated still laughing “at first, and every once in a while you made me feel about ninety”  
He walked over noticing that she was done stretching and helped her up.  
“You just have to accept that there are certain things that teenagers need to experience for themselves. As soon as you try to get them to skip over life lessons by telling them how you learned they are much easier to be around.” 

“Do you still remember those grounding exercises we did?” Buffy asked him.  
“Of course”  
“Do you want to do a session, I feel like my head is my weakness these days. Don’t want to go out there and lose focus you know?” She looked at him hopefully.  
“Sure, Buffy are you sure you’re alright? I’m sorry for repeatedly asking but there is just something I can’t put my finger on” Giles laid a hand on her upper arm and tried to make eye contact.

She sighed “Yeah I’m fine, I’ve just been in my head a lot.”  
Giles didn’t look convinced but all he said was “Ok let’s meditate then.”  
They sat down opposite each other and crossed their legs, Giles then guided her through a meditation.  
Buffy realised quickly that she had not thought this through. A meditation had sounded like a solid plan, helping her ground herself and maybe gain some control of her emotions. Sitting here with her knees touching his, holding prolonged eye contact and listening to his soothing voice was having the opposite effect.

After Giles noticed for the fourth time that she had lost her focus he sighed deeply and ended the meditation.  
“You’ll at least have to convince me that this has nothing to do with nerves about tomorrow” he said as he stood up. “I can’t in good conscience let you lead a group of slayers in a fight if I think you’re doubting yourself.”

They started walking out of the training room together as Buffy thought about her reply.  
“It has nothing to do with the battle, I’m not sure how to convince you of that, but I’m kind of hoping that you’ll just trust me on this.”

They got off the elevator into the hallway that led to his office. No one else seemed to be there, Buffy noticed that it was 9 pm so probably everyone had left hours ago.  
When they got closer to his office though a tall, very beautiful woman with long black hair wearing a pencil skirt and a sleeveless white shirt exited his office.

“Mr.Giles I just left a few memos on your desk, I didn’t realise you were still here.” She smiled at him and walked over to his secretaries desk.  
“Buffy this is my new secretary Miss Lewis, Miss Lewis this is Buffy Summers.”  
Buffy shook her hand and felt herself get less happy that Giles’ secretary had resigned. 

“Miss Lewis you did not need to stay this late” Giles said standing in the doorway to his office.  
“It was nice to have some peace and quiet to go over what Mrs Clarke left for me, I was hoping for some time with you to go over some changes I wanted to suggest.”  
“Certainly, some changes in how this office is run would be much appreciated. Set aside some time for that after this business in Oxford has been dealt with.” Giles smiled warmly at her and then turned to Buffy and nodded his head towards his office before entering.

She followed him into his office and he went to his desk and started searching for his keys.  
“I’m sorry I kept you here so late” she said quietly uncertain of his mood.

“Buffy of course I stay if you need help with anything, you know that.” he stopped looking in the drawer and looked up at her. His face was so earnest, of course he would stay as late as she asked that’s what he does. Buffy tried to smile at him and sat in one of the chairs opposite the desk.  
He may have changed since he moved back to England, or maybe he hadn’t changed he had just let her see a different side of him. But he would still make any sacrifice she asked of him, she couldn’t convince herself that it was romantic that he prioritised her above all else, no it was just unfair on him.

She hadn’t noticed that he had walked over and sat down in the chair beside her.  
“Buffy will you please just tell me what is wrong?” he leaned forward and placed a hand on her knee. She instinctively placed her hand on top of his, she stroked the back of his hand with her thumb briefly before pulling her hand back and looking up into his eyes.  
She wouldn’t do this to him, he seemed so happy with his life and her involvement in it caused him to give up on so many things that made him happy. She would stay in New York or LA or wherever she ended up and they would stay friends and he would be much happier for it.

She smiled at him again, sure that this time it looked more natural.  
“I’ve just been working through some stuff recently, thinking about the future and other things. I guess it has been distracting me.”  
“And you won’t tell me about any of it?” Buffy thought he looked hurt and that broke her heart.  
“Right now we should go home and get some sleep after we’re finished with this fight we can get dinner together or something and talk, ok?” She could discuss her thoughts about work and school with him and hopefully convince him that was all she was worried about.  
Giles didn’t look convinced but he agreed and went back to looking for the key.


	9. A Change of Heart

“Hey Buff can I talk to you for a second?” Willow was already closing the bedroom door behind her. Buffy sat on the bed repacking for Oxford “Sure.”  
Willow sat on the bed next to her and started playing with a ring on her finger.  
“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to” Willow was obviously nervous as she spoke “but what did you say to Giles?”

“Nothing, why?”  
“Well he’s all worried about you and asking me if I know if there is a reason to be worried and I don’t know what to say.” Willow stood up from the bed and walked around it and sat back down.  
“Will you’re babbling.” Buffy laughed at her.

“Ok you at least don’t sound like someone I need to be worried about” Willow raised an eyebrow at her.  
“Well I made up my mind” Buffy glanced at the closed door and lowered her voice to a whisper “I’m not going to tell Giles. We’ll just be friends and I’m ok with that.” 

Willow's eyes narrowed at her and she whispered “But Buffy this morning you were head over heels, how are you just walking away from it all now?”  
“It’s just better, I just want him to be happy and if I’m in his life his first instinct is to make sacrifices for me. He should find someone around here and be happy.”

Willow thought for a moment “So you’re not just going to ignore your feelings for him you’re also going to ignore the fact that you loved working with the slayers and want to join the council?”  
“I never said I wanted to join the council” Buffy said louder than she had intended.

“Well you said you were considering it and I’ve been watching you today Buff, you’re happier here doing this than you’ve been for a while.”  
Buffy couldn’t deny that training with the slayers had been great, it had been so nice to be able to help out both with the younger slayers and with this crisis.  
“Well maybe I’ll go back, get over these feelings and then I’ll join if it’s what I want.”

Willow sighed and looked at Buffy for a moment.  
“Ok, if you’re sure. I’m going to bed then, Giles says we have to be up at 6.”

They both got ready for bed and after they turned off the light Buffy lay awake for a long time.  
Willow was breathing softly by her side but Buffy felt wide awake.  
She snuck out of bed to get a glass of water, when she opened the door she saw that the light was on in the kitchen and living room.

Giles sat at the kitchen table, reading a large old book. He was wearing the same shirt and pants as he had been during the day but had taken everything else off. His hair was rumpled like he’d been repeatedly running his hand through it.

“I thought you had teams to do the late night research for you?” Buffy asked softly, trying not to startle him as she entered the kitchen.  
He dismissively raised an eyebrow “Old habits die hard I guess, what are you doing up?”  
“Same as you I guess” she sat opposite him at the table and pulled the book he was reading towards her “difficult to fall asleep when you know what’s waiting when you wake up. I just feel all restless, want to get it over with.”

“Yes that sounds familiar, you want some tea?”  
“Yes, please” she watched as he started the kettle and got an extra mug for her.  
“Is the act of making tea something that soothes you or is it just the tea itself?” she asked him while he measured out the leaves.

Giles chuckled “I think the ritual is probably more soothing than the tea.” He turned to look at her as he waited for the water to boil. “It also often works as an excuse to leave an awkward conversation or if you’re lucky even leave a room temporarily.”  
She giggled at that knowing he had often used tea making as an excuse to leave them back in Sunnydale.

“It’s just such a ritual for you, I just realised I relaxed watching you go through the motions” she got up to stand by his side as he got back to making the tea.  
As Giles put the tea pot to the side he turned so that he leant his hip against the counter, but he just looked at her without saying anything. She turned to face him and found herself closer than she expected.

Buffy looked up into his eyes and all her certainty about not telling him how she felt faded away. She realised that she was standing inside his personal space wearing only a tanktop and very short cotton shorts but couldn’t find it in herself to move away.  
He seemed to read something in her face or maybe he just got uncomfortable with the situation because he furrowed his brows and said “I fear I’m repeating myself incessantly, but is everything alright?”

“I should know by now that I really can't hide anything from you” she said softly. She looked down scared that she would do something rash.  
“So why are you trying?”  
“Because” she searched for the right words “there are some things that we are just better off not knowing or discussing.”

They stood in silence, Buffy looking at Giles’ chest not daring to look up, neither of them spoke or moved.  
“Ok Buffy, I hope that you know that you can tell me anything no matter how cliche that sounds” she giggled a bit but didn’t look up.  
“And I will do my best to not imagine the worst in this situation.” 

She finally looked up, she didn’t want to worry him. Even if she wanted to tell him, the night before a big battle was not the time. She was also aware of the fact that if she just stood up on her tiptoes she could kiss him.

He was looking into her eyes with such a soft expression on his face.  
She raised her arm and cupped the side of his face, running her thumb across his cheek. She knew the gesture was more intimate than they were used to but she felt she might get away with it without it causing any issues between them. 

His eyes widened but he didn’t stop her, she raised herself half way to his lips, never breaking eye contact. He seemed to be frozen, his eyes were still a bit wide but he made no move to stop her. Buffy moved the rest of the way briefly licking her lips just before she kissed him. The kiss was short and chaste. She lowered herself down from the tiptoes and with one last stroke of her thumb moved her hand from his face, but she didn’t step away from him.

They stood there for another moment just looking into each other's eyes, his gave nothing away but surprise.  
“I’m not sure I’ve ever been this confused in my life” Giles chuckled as he spoke and they both started laughing. Buffy laid her forehead against his chest and as their laughter died down Giles hugged her to him. His left hand on the back of her head and his right around her waist.

She felt him kiss the top of her head before he let her go. But he didn’t let her go all the way, he held her upper arms gently and bent down at his knees a bit to make eye contact again.  
“Where did that come from Buffy?” he straightened up again when she looked into his eyes.

“I didn’t mean to do that, I’m sorry” she could feel herself blushing and she looked down again.  
Giles’ lightly used a finger under her chin to lift her face back up and she could see one corner of his mouth lift slightly.  
“No harm done so don’t apologize, but what brought this on? Is this related to what’s been bothering you?” He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

She couldn’t make sense of it to herself, how was she supposed to explain to Giles that even though they’ve known each other for so long she wants more, his touch, his voice, his presence makes her weak in the knees and her stomach fill with butterflies not to mention that she seemed to get wet from nothing but a smile from him. No that last one was definitely over the line.

She looked down again, drew a deep breath and decided there was no turning back now “My desire to do that is what’s been bothering me” she said and as she started talking she seemed to find some of her confidence.  
“No actually not just that, I shouldn’t focus on the physical stuff, although that is a bit difficult when I’m standing so close to you.”

She looked up to see that his jaw had dropped and his eyes seemed to search hers for something. Buffy knew she could do this, she had fought the worst of the worst and survived. She and Giles had also been through hell and back in their relationship. They could survive if he rejected her.

“My feelings for you have been changing for a while, and I’ve been torturing myself trying to decide whether I should tell you or not.” At least he still had his hands on her arms, it was reassuring that he hadn’t stepped away.

“Buffy I,” he hesitated, “are you” he stopped again.  
“I’m sorry I know I’ve just dropped a bomb on you.” she brought a hand up and tentatively laid it on his chest “have you ever thought about it…..about me?”

“I can’t say that I have” she guessed it was the look on her face that made him quickly add “of course I know that you are beautiful and that I love you.” He let go of her and stepped a half a step back. He rubbed his forehead and ran a hand through his hair “but I have never thought of you” he searched for words.  
“In a romantic way” she offered and he nodded.

“Do you think you could?” she asked after he had been silent for too long.  
“I don’t know how to answer that” he said quietly, now it was him that wouldn’t make eye contact.  
“Maybe this was a bad idea” she had imagined this going so many ways, this was not the worst. Still she felt hurt and she started to regret saying anything.

“No Buffy” he put his hands back on her upper arms and then moved one of them to cup the side of her head in a reassuring gesture “I may not know how to have this conversation right now but you telling me was the right thing. I would much rather discuss this than have it cause tension between us.”

“Just give me a little time” he smiled a little shyly “I think you have a head start here.”  
Buffy was pretty sure that if there was a chance he would know right away but if he wanted time to think that was fine, they weren’t going to solve this in a day.  
“Sure Giles” she tried for a reassuring smile “lets deal with one crisis at a time. Let’s talk after these demons are dealt with.”

He pulled her in for a hug. “Thank you” he whispered into the top of her hair before placing another kiss there. She pulled back just enough to look into his eyes again.  
She had meant to say something but instead she noticed his eyes darting to her lips. She bit her bottom lip lightly to stop herself from interrupting the moment.

Giles moved his hand from the back of her head to her cheek and ran a thumb against her bottom lip. Her breath caught in her throat and she felt like she melted into his arms.  
He bent down and kissed her, it was a very soft kiss but then he used his other hand to pull her closer to him and he deepened the kiss. 

The hand on her face ran down the side of her body and stopped just below the hem of her shorts. He softly ran his fingers up her thighs just under the shorts, the small gesture set her body on fire and she moaned. Giles grabbed the opportunity to stroke her tongue with his. 

Suddenly both of his hands grabbed her ass and he lifted her into the air, turned her and set her on the counter so that he stood between her thighs. She pulled his shirt from his pants and ran her hands up his back. He broke the kiss and started to kiss down her neck.

“God Giles” she gasped as he gently bit a sensitive spot on her neck. All of a sudden he stopped, placed his hands on the counter on either side of her, took a step back and looked down to the floor.

“That was not what I meant when I asked for time” he said, breathing hard.  
She burst out laughing, quickly trying to quiet herself down since she didn’t want to wake Willow.  
“It wasn’t what I expected from this conversation either but I’m not complaining” she smirked at him when he looked up at her.

“At least I think we answered any question regarding physical attraction” he chuckled as he righted himself.  
“You really are extraordinarily beautiful” he cupped her face again with his left hand. She turned her head a little bit to kiss the inside of his palm.  
“And you are a really good kisser, like amazing” she said trying to keep the atmosphere from turning too serious again.  
Giles blushed which just made her want to kiss him again.

“But we shouldn’t start anything based on an attraction. You mean too much to me Buffy.” he lifted a hand to her face but caught himself and took a step back.  
“You take your time Giles” she jumped down from the counter. The effect she had on him had only bolstered her surge of confidence “I’m pretty certain of my feelings just let me know when you’re ready to talk.”

Buffy started to walk past him but turned around and lifted herself up to place a kiss on his cheek, she winked at him and walked out of the kitchen.


	10. The Not So Calm Before the Storm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm finishing up the last two chapters and I'll post them tomorrow. Thanks to everyone reading!

Surprisingly Buffy had fallen asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow and it felt like only a few minutes had passed when Willow woke her up early the next morning.

When she got to the kitchen, Willow and Giles were making breakfast.  
“How did you sleep?” Giles asked as he handed her a large cup of coffee and gestured for her to take a seat at the table.   
“Really well actually” she smiled at him and making sure that Willow didn’t notice gave him a small wink when she asked “and you?” 

“Could use a few more hours but I’m fine” he replied placing a plate in front of her with toast, eggs and fruits.  
“Want anything else?” He asked as he placed two plates on the table for him and Willow.  
She shook her head and started to eat, Xander showed up a few minutes later and Giles prepared him a plate too.

“We were not often this prepared for a fight back in Sunnydale.” Xander said as he dropped his bag in the entryway and walked to the kitchen.

They ate quickly and after everyone made sure they had what they needed, they set off.  
Giles drove and Xander sat in the front seat, he was on the phone for most of the drive relaying information to Giles and coordinating with the other groups.

“They think they won't show up until tonight, most of their activity is nocturnal so hopefully we will have the time to settle everyone, maybe have the entire slayer group fit in a short training session and let the magic folks set up properly” Xander said as he hung up the phone for at least the fifth time and got more comfortable in his seat.   
“The last group is about 30 minutes behind us.” he added to Giles.

“So girls, just the holiday you were hoping for?” Xander asked with a small laugh.  
“Hey I’m here with the three of you I can’t complain. Plus I’m getting to see Xander the watcher in action,” Buffy smiled “color me impressed.”  
Xander blushed and changed the subject to what they should do when they get back to London.

The council had set them up in a small hotel on the outskirts of Oxford, they had rented all the rooms and evidently had some connection with the owners since they had left to give them privacy.   
“Over half of the old watchers studied at Oxford, the council still has a fair amount of influence around her” Giles explained to them.

Buffy decided that her priority was training with the slayers so as soon as everyone had arrived she got them all to join her in the large garden to train together as a group.  
One of the watchers, Rebecca, the one that had shown Buffy to the training room the day before, came out after about two hours and told them to take a break.  
“Go rest and eat. There will be a meeting in an hour to go over the plan of action for tonight.” 

She then came over to Buffy “You’ve got them working together as a group easily, that’s impressive”  
“Thank you, it’s actually fun to work with them.”  
“I’m guessing Mr.Giles has already tried to recruit you” they started walking back to the house.  
“Nahh Giles believes I’ve done my job, finished my quota or something like that.”   
That made Rebecca laugh.

“What?”  
“I’m sorry, I don’t know him very well but that just sounds so like him, he has all these plans for the slayers, to make sure that they only have to work for a set amount of years and then he just keeps going himself.”  
Buffy chuckled at that “Yeah that’s true, but to be fair watchers and slayers don’t give the same to the cause.”

“You’re right, although I’d say that he has come fairly close. From reading the diaries from your time together he seems to have taken a more active role in the fighting than most watchers. And given almost all of his time to it.” the way she spoke made it clear that she admired Giles.  
“Well I’ve not read that many diaries and mostly just segments so I can’t compare. He did always seem to work as hard as possible though.”

“Yeah well comparison is hard since you guys were on a hellmouth and faced more than most. But you should know that most watchers back in the day would do their best to keep regular working hours.”   
That made Buffy laugh “No such thing as a regular workday back in Sunnydale that’s for sure.”

They walked into the dining room where the younger slayers were getting food from a buffet. Willow sat with some people at a small table in the corner, they were deep in conversation, Buffy guessed they were from the magic department. Giles and Xander sat with some watchers at a round table at the center of the room. They looked relaxed enough that she guessed they were not talking about the upcoming fight.

“Buffy, would you like to join us?” Giles had spotted her as she stood surveying the room. He pulled a chair from the next table and made room for her next to him. Buffy grabbed a muffin from the buffet and sat down next to Giles.

“Yes please come and change the subject” Xander groaned from the seat next to her.  
Buffy grinned at Giles “What are you talking about?”   
“Well I thought the next subject could be Xander’s hyena possession” Giles answered in a dry tone but his grin gave away his enjoyment.  
“Yeah that’s always a good story, or when he went on a date with our teacher who turned out to be a giant praying mantis” Buffy suggested, causing everyone at the table to laugh. 

“Hey I think the two of you should just remember that I can tell these fine people a few of your stories too” Xander pointed a finger at the two of them. Buffy and Giles both laughed at him.  
“I’m sorry Xander we’ll stop, but I think you would lose that competition. For every story on us there are two on you.”

Xander just shrugged and Buffy looked around the table to find some very disappointed faces.  
“We could tell them about the time that Willow had a vampire doppelgänger” she suggested glancing at her friend in the corner.   
Xander started on the story gleefully but then his phone rang. 

“They have destroyed the artefact so we are no longer dealing with an apocalypse, just a run of the mill demon attack” he told them as he hung up the phone.  
“Well that’s something at least,” Buffy said turning to Giles “would have been nice to have this many people back in Sunnydale”   
Giles smiled at her “Yeah it would have helped.” 

Turning to the rest of the table he added “I want us to redouble our efforts in locating them. We have not been able to confirm whether they can sense the artefact or not. I want to know if they turn back now that it has been destroyed and if they don’t we might be able to launch a surprise attack if we find them before they move in.”   
“On it boss” Xander said and he called everyone over and started delegating tasks. 

“He’s really on top of this whole thing” Buffy whispered to Giles as they stood a little back from the rest of the group.  
“Yes he’s become a sort of right hand man, not sure if I would have kept my sanity those first months without his help.”   
“Wow I wish I could go back about 7 years and let the old you hear you say that about Xander” Buffy thought back to how much Xander had usually irritated Giles during their high school years. 

“Want to go for a walk?” he leant down to whisper to her “ before they notice we aren’t part of the group.”  
They quietly made their way out the back door and into the garden.

“How was your training with the slayers?”   
“It was good, one of the girls who has the least training is actually a better fighter than some of the ones who have graduated, I don’t know if she is just a natural or if I have major issues with how you guys are training them.” 

Giles just rolled his eyes at her, catching the fact that she was teasing him “Want to see if the stable actually has horses?”   
Buffy nodded enthusiastically at him and he placed his hand on the small of her back as they walked to the stable which stood a little way from the house.

Inside they found 2 horses, 1 brown and 1 black they both looked up when they entered.  
“They are beautiful,” Buffy said as Giles went to the black horse and stroked it under its mane “and you obviously have more experience with horses than me.”  
“Come here they’re friendly, probably used for the customers of the hotel” Giles held his hand out for her, she took it and he guided her to stand in front of him. 

He lifted their joined hands and placed them under the horse's mane and stroked down its neck. Buffy couldn’t focus on anything other than their hands and Giles’ body behind her.   
“Do you want to wait until after the fight to continue our discussion from last night?” Giles was so close to her ear when he spoke that she could feel his breath. Buffy was sure he was just a moment away from kissing her neck.

Buffy moved her head to the side under the pretence of trying to see him but really she just wanted to give him better access to her neck.   
“No whenever you want” she whispered. His other hand came to rest on her hip but then he sighed and rested his head on her shoulder before taking a step back. 

“I need to talk about this, I have a lot of questions but right now I really don’t want to talk” his breathing was a bit faster than normal and there was an intensity in his eyes.   
“I know what you mean” Buffy licked her lips and took a step closer to him.  
Giles’ arms shot out and grabbed her shoulders to keep her a bit further away than she wanted.

“Oh bloody hell” just when she thought he would push her away he pulled her to him and kissed her. His hands ran down her body as his tongue explored her mouth.  
He lifted her up against a wall and as she wrapped her legs around him she heard him groan.  
Giles broke their kiss and started kissing and nibbling his way down her neck and over her collar bone. 

Buffy needed more and dragged his head back up to kiss her again, as her tongue entered his mouth she pulled him in closer using her legs. The moan that escaped him turned her on even more. 

Giles placed a hand under her ass to support her as he moved her from the wall, he moved to a table nearby and used his other hand to swipe the stuff on top of it to the ground. He then sat her down on the table and started kissing her again. He pulled her top over her head in one quick motion, then he tangled his left hand in her hair and pulled her head back so her back arched.

“You are so bloody gorgeous” he said before he dove down to kiss her neck again. She was so turned on she couldn’t think straight and she desperately needed to touch him. She started to pull his shirt from his pants as he kissed his way over the curves of her breasts. Her hand finally reached his skin and she placed both her hands on his back under his shirt and pulled him closer, he looked up from her chest and she could see the desire in his eyes, Buffy knew that her’s must look the same.

She grabbed the back of his head and pulled him in for a hard kiss. He unhooked her bra and using one finger of each hand he slid the straps down her hands. After tossing her bra to the side he broke the kiss and bent down and licked each nipple. Buffy felt like her whole body was on fire and a shiver went through her at each lick. 

When Giles took one of her nipples into his mouth and sucked on it she moaned and instinctively rubbed herself against him feeling his hardness through his jeans. Giles growled and grabbed her ass pulling her closer as he bit her nipple causing her to moan again and he then moved on to give the other nipple the same treatment. Buffy hadn’t ever felt this much pleasure from anyone just playing with her nipples, but when Giles nipped on the other one she felt a pleasure shoot right through her making her clit throb for more friction.

When Giles moved back between her nipples licking and kissing his way down between her breasts she wrapped her legs more tightly around him, loving the feel of his erection against her. He teased her nipple softly licking around it and over but then he grabbed her ass again and sucked her nipple into his mouth.

“Giles I’m going” she didn’t manage to say anything more, she cried out as her orgasm hit her. She wrapped her arms around his neck for support and trembled.  
Giles slowly slid his hands up and down her back, kissing her chest and neck as she came down. When her breathing had slowed a bit he kissed her again, the kiss started out languid but soon became passionate.

Giles stood up straight as she started unbuttoning his shirt, kissing his chest every time she revealed more skin. He reached behind him and unwrapped her legs, sliding his fingers up the inside of her thighs, causing her to moan when he reached her upper thighs. Just that small touch and she could feel the fire building in her again.

She managed the last button and moved to push the shirt off his shoulders as Giles had resumed kissing her neck. They were interrupted by his phone ringing.   
“For fucks sake” Giles hissed into her neck, he buried his forehead in the crook of her neck for a second and then straightened to reach for his phone in his pocket. 

He didn’t move away though so Buffy took the opportunity to run her fingers through his chest hair, she circled a nipple with her finger and leant forward to lick it. Giles grabbed her wrist to stop her, licking his lips as she looked up into his eyes. 

Giles said goodbye to whoever was on the phone and pressed his forehead to hers.  
“We have to go, they found the demons.”  
“You’re kidding me?”  
“You have no idea how much I wish I was” he said as his hands traveled up her sides and his thumbs brushed each nipple.

“This is not what I planned when I asked you to go for a walk”  
“The sex or the stopping part” she teased him.  
Giles just reached for her top and bra, handed them to her and started to button up his shirt.  
She quickly got dressed and moved over to him and ran her palm over the bulge in his pants “You ok to go out there?” she grinned at him and licked her lips.

“As much as I want to know what just went through your head, I’ll be fine.” He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Your lips are noticeably swollen” he smirked at her as he spoke.  
“But seriously Buffy we shouldn’t have done what we just did without actually talking this through.”

“Maybe we need to do this over the phone then?” she suggested.  
Giles chuckled but then looked down with a small sigh “Let’s go before they come looking for us.”


	11. The Fight

“Hey G-man, we have a location and the slayers are locked and loaded. I think we should leave while we still have a few hours of daylight.” Xander yelled out as soon as they walked back into the dining room.

Giles pinched the bridge of his nose “I really thought we’d buried that nickname back in Sunnydale”  
“Yeah sorry, everyone got all serious when we found out about the location so I was just trying to keep it light you know” Xander blushed a little.

Giles slapped him on the back “I guess that matters more but”  
“Never call you that again I remember”

“So what do we know?” As soon as Giles asked the question 5 people surrounded him and Xander. Buffy started to walk over when Willow grabbed her arm.  
“Where exactly were you?” her eyes were narrowed as she looked over Buffy.

“I’ll tell you later Will, right now duty calls” Buffy winked at Willow which caused her eyebrows to shoot up her forehead.  
“So there is something to tell?”  
“Oh yeah” Buffy whispered and walked over to stand between Giles and Xander.

A short while later all the slayers, a few of the watchers and a few witches joined the Sunnydale group in a short drive to get them closer to where the demons had been spotted.  
They left the cars by the side of the road and walked in silence into a forest.  
After a few minutes one of the watchers tapped Buffy on the shoulder. He pointed to an area of the forest that seemed denser and darker than the rest.

Buffy took 2 slayers, Willow and one more witch with her to get a closer look.  
The demons were huge, 8 feet easily, coal black and as she had been told they had sharp fangs so large you could see them from a distance.  
Most of the demons were in a tight group but about ten demons stood a few feet from the group forming a circle to stand guard.

“The reports were right there are more than 30 of them, I’d guess closer to 40” she whispered to Giles when they got back to the group.  
“10 are standing guard, with a coordinated attack we could possibly take them out first with arrows, Willow can you do that telepathy thing to all the slayers at the same time?”  
Willow just nodded in reply.  
“And you had a spell to shoot some fire, is that safe around here or will we burn the forest down?”  
“It’s not normal fire, we can control it,” Willow said.

“Ok then here’s my plan” Buffy looked to Giles who gave her a reassuring nod “me and the other slayers all grab crossbows and surround the demons. When Willow knows we are all in place she will give us the order to fire. That will hopefully take out the demons that are spread out from the group.” She looked to the slayers, most of them had already grabbed crossbows.

“As soon as you have given us the order I want you to shoot that fire to the group that’s huddled together. Can you make sure that the fire goes out if they attack us?” Willow nodded again “I don’t want any of us burned.”  
“Watchers you look out for injured slayers and any stray demons, if you can’t let us know let Willow know she’ll get the message along” Buffy smiled to her friend.

She split the slayers into two groups and they set off. Giles grabbed her hand when she started walking and just looked into her eyes.  
“I’ll be careful” she smiled at him before setting off with the slayers.

“ _Buffy can you hear me?_ ” Willow's voice was loud in her head.  
“ _Yeah_ ” she thought back. She reminded herself that this was a very useful thing to have in a fight but she really hated hearing someone else’s voice in her head.  
“ _Ok good just let me know when you are all in position._ ”

As Buffy circled to the other side of the group of demons she pointed each slayer to their position along the way. The ones with the least amount of training were paired up with other slayers but the rest were on their own.  
Buffy got to her position and got a signal from the slayers to her right and left that they were ready.

“ _Will we are ready_ ”  
“ _Ok good luck Buff. Should I like say fire or go or what_?”  
“ _Not the time Will_ ”  
“ _Right, ok everyone ready…..Fire_ ”

Buffy couldn’t help but marvel at the opportunity that came with fighting with this much back up.  
Fifteen arrows flew from ten different directions.  
The demons that caught an arrow to the heart or eyes crumpled to the ground and didn’t move again.  
She thought they had managed to kill at least seven demons with just that first attack.

All of a sudden a large blue flame caught at the center of the herd. A blood curdling sound came from the group of demons as they ran off in different directions.  
She grabbed her scythe and looked to her sides seeing a few slayers draw swords or knives.  
A couple of demons were running right at her, one of them was engulfed in blue flames.

She took a stance and when they got within 6 feet of her the flames suddenly went out. Buffy sent a silent thank you to Willow and managed to slice the head of the first demon in one stroke.  
She managed the second one fairly easily too. Then she heard a scream and saw a slayer fall to the ground about half way between her and the other end of the circle.

She started to make her way over but then saw Xander and two other watchers running towards the injured slayer.  
She located the least experienced slayers who fought alongside their sister slayers.  
There were fights on all sides and every time a demon went more than a few feet away from one of the slayers they were hit by balls of flame.

Buffy saw three demons run towards one slayer on the other side of the circle. She hurried to her side, managing to quickly take out one of the three, she kicked another but received a blow to the back at the same time. She fell to the ground and a demon jumped on top of her delivering a hard blow to her jaw.

Buffy tried to reach for her scythe but it was out of reach, the demon punched her again and bent down to bite her but its head flew off as Tina, the slayer she had come to assist swung at him with her sword.

Buffy jumped up and grabbed her scythe as she saw four more demons coming towards them. She and Tina each kicked a demon managing to set them back a step. Buffy then lost track of Tina as she ducked a blow from the second demon. She managed to get in a few punches until she saw her opportunity and swung her scythe, decapitating the demon in front of her and then pushed it back using the stake on its end to pierce the other demon's heart.

Tina had killed one demon but was still fighting the other. Buffy joined the fight and they quickly disposed of it.  
Buffy looked across the scene and saw two slayers take down what looked like the last demon.  
“You ok Tina?”  
“Just a couple of bruises” the younger slayer answered with a smile.  
“I was prepared for a bigger fight” Buffy added as they walked over to check on the rest of the group.

The witches looked tired and the watchers were tending to a few slayers. Buffy walked over to where Xander and Giles stood together.  
“You two good?”  
“Xander took his role as my right hand man a bit too seriously and decided to get himself hit over the head.” Giles answered dryly.  
“Ha ha” Xander rolled his eyes at Giles “I’m fine just a little bump. You good Buff?”

“Yeah fine only took a couple of punches. Everyone else?” she looked at Giles who smiled and ran his hand from her shoulder to her elbow in a reassuring gesture.  
“No serious injuries, some of the slayers need stitches and I think one might have a broken arm, the witches need rest” his eyes traveled to the group of witches who sat in a circle a little way from the group “That fire spell was quite an impressive bit of magic.”

Giles managed to convince Xander to go over to the medic and have himself checked out.  
“They are attempting to get rid of the bodies for us, if that works we leave as soon as all the slayers have been attended too.”  
Buffy reached out to him and dragged him a couple of steps away from the nearest people.  
“Are you all right?” she asked, looking him over.

“I’m fine, never even managed to get into the fight, Sarah was injured shortly after the demons scattered and I tended to her as the others fetched more injured slayers.” He didn’t seem pleased. “I think they didn’t want to risk the head of council” he rolled his eyes.  
“Well remind me to thank them” she leaned into him briefly.

“You sure you’re alright?”  
She just smiled and nodded feeling warmth spread through her body as Giles briefly put an arm around her shoulder.


	12. Catching Up Again

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Adding three chapters today since this one is really short.

“God I think I could sleep for years” Willow sighed as she collapsed on the couch as soon as they entered Giles’ apartment.  
“For like the tenth time we could have stayed the night in Oxford if you are so tired” Buffy said exasperated sitting down next to Willow.  
“Nahh I swear being around so many slayers gives me traumatising flashbacks from living with all the potentials” Willow slid to the side resting her head on Buffy’s shoulder “waking up here tomorrow just three people in the house is better...or you know the next day I might just sleep through tomorrow.” 

“I won’t argue with you on that,” Giles said as he finished putting away their weapons.  
“You also sleeping through tomorrow?” Buffy asked him.  
“No, but if I never have to wake up in a house with that many women again it will be too soon.”

“Ok Will off to bed before you fall asleep right here” Buffy gently pushed Willow who didn’t move just muttered “sure.”  
Buffy flashed Giles an apologetic smile.  
“We'll talk tomorrow” he said softly, smiling back at her “get her to bed I’ll just finish putting some stuff away.”  
“Good night Giles” Willow murmured from Buffy’s shoulder, causing both Buffy and Giles to laugh.

After getting ready for bed Willow seemed to have woken up a little bit.  
“So tell me what’s going on?” she whispered excitedly from where she was sitting on the bed.  
Buffy pressed her ear to the door to make sure Giles had gone upstairs then, sat down on the bed next to Willow.

“You know how I wasn’t going to tell him?”   
Willow just nodded “Well he just wouldn’t let me get away with it, he knew I was in my head about something and kept asking me and being all worried about me.”

Buffy grabbed her pillow and hugged it “ so last night after you went to sleep I went to the kitchen and found him there and well I sort of ended up blurting parts of it out and well….” she trailed off and blushed at the memory of Giles lifting her up unto the counter and the feeling of his tongue in her mouth and his fingers on her bare thighs.

“Oh my god” Willow gasped “what exactly happened and why are you blushing.”  
“We just kind of...oh god” Buffy buried her face in her pillow “made out for a while” her voice was muffled behind the pillow.  
“Oh my god, you made out with Giles” Willow was barely audible, she was trying so hard not to squeal “you have to tell me more. Is he a good kisser? I always thought he’d be a good kisser, I promise I won’t ask for any more details.”

Buffy looked up from her pillow and nodded “amazing, he was….yeah no not going into details. But yeah really really good.”  
“But nothing more happened?”  
“No he asked for time to think about his feelings because I sort of sprung that whole thing on him so we just went to bed.”

“Ok then what happened today? Where did you go?”  
“He wanted to talk so we went to the stable and he said he had a lot of questions but we didn’t actually get to the conversation.” She hid her face in the pillow again.  
“Did you sleep with him?” Willow asked somehow, managing a high pitched whisper.  
“No but only because Xander called” 

Willow went quiet and when Buffy looked up she was staring off with a familiar look on her face.  
“What? You were excited a minute ago”  
“Well Buff, you guys still haven’t talked about anything really. I think you need to make sure that you two are on the same page before you let this go any further.”  
Buffy knew she was right “Yeah I will. I’ll talk to him tomorrow, possibly in a public place.”  
They both giggled and both tried desperately to shush the other one causing more giggles.

Willow fell asleep as soon as she laid her head on the pillow but Buffy had a nervous knot in her stomach. She had to talk to Giles and she wanted to do it now, she could hear the upstairs shower running so he was still awake. She looked over at Willow who was fast asleep with an eye mask and earplugs, she made up her mind and slipped out of the room.


	13. Setting the Record Straight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just a warning that these last two chapters are the reason this story is rated 'Explicit'.

Buffy hadn’t ever been in Giles’ room, she heard the shower running so she didn’t knock before she entered. His room was bigger than the guest room but not big, there was a large bed, a closet, a dresser and a bookcase. Buffy smiled at the fact that Giles had a study and a living room that were both lined with bookcases but he still fitted another one in here.

On the dresser were a few framed photos, there were a couple from Sunnydale one of the four of them and one with Anya, Tara and Dawn too. There was a photo of a young boy with his parents, looking at the boy and his father Buffy was fairly certain that it was Giles and his parents. Then there were a couple of old photos of a group of young people, Buffy could recognise Giles in both of them and thought she might recognise Ethan Rayne next to him in both. 

She heard the shower turn off and could feel herself get nervous again, she took a deep breath and sat down on the bed.   
A short while later Giles came out of the bathroom with a towel around his waist.   
“Buffy?”   
She knew her eyes were wide, she hadn’t thought this through, he should not be naked for this conversation.  
“Sorry I just couldn’t sleep and I wanted to try to actually finish that conversation we meant to start today. You wanted to talk and I kind of jumped you.”   
Giles chuckled “I’m fairly certain I did the jumping”

“You had questions, what are they?”   
Giles ran a hand through his hair and sighed “Are you sure about this Buffy, is this jealousy or possessiveness or are these actual feelings?”   
“Jealousy? Why do you say that?”

“I don’t know, something Liv said the other night about your reaction when you met her. Then your questions about Liz and well there was something about your reaction to my new secretary. I guess I’m scared that you are conflating your feelings toward me as your watcher and…..” he trailed off.

“Ok I get it” she stood up from the bed and walked to the window on the other side of the room.  
“I think that time I first met Olivia I was mostly overwhelmed, seeing her in your apartment the other night however I was jealous but then you acted more intimate with Liz and I was also jealous.” she chuckled “and your new secretary is well and you were all charming and yeah ok I’m not coming off all confident here” she turned around to find him still standing in the doorway to the bathroom silently laughing at her.

“But I was jealous because I came to London planning to tell you that I’ve been falling for you for months Giles” she started walking to him again and saw his eyes widen at her words.  
“I know I have probably not gone about this the right way” Buffy hesitated searching for the right words “but I’m not trying to stake my claim or something like that.”

“You say that” Giles crossed his arms in front of his chest and spoke slowly as if he was choosing his words very carefully “but if you are so sure then how come just yesterday you said I was better off not knowing about this?” 

“Because a part of me still thinks that no matter how much I might want this you are better off with pretty much anyone else.” he narrowed his eyes in response but didn’t say anything.  
“When I showed up here a few days ago I realised that no matter how much our relationship has changed it is still built on the watcher slayer relationship. That’s our foundation.”

“I don’t understand what you mean Buffy”  
“You sacrificed so much for me back in Sunnydale and I took it for granted, if I even noticed. Showing up here and seeing you with a group of friends you looked happier than I’ve ever seen you. I can’t help believing that you would be so much happier without me being a big part of your life.”

“How can you say that Buffy?” He took a step forward but she put up a hand to stop him.  
“This is not me feeling sorry for myself Giles you don’t have to make me feel better. I just need you to really think this through, as soon as I showed up your focus was on me. You read my body language, cheered me up when you thought I needed it, you noticed when I was in my head and ended up staying later than anyone else at the council not to mention running off to join a fight that you shouldn’t have been part of.”

“But Buffy”  
“No Giles just let me get this all out ok?” her voice was calm through all of this. She wasn’t upset; she just wanted him to understand what she was feeling.  
He nodded at her.  
“Your first instinct is to prioritise me over yourself to an extreme point. I may not know much about healthy relationships but I’m pretty sure that is not the best place to start.” she sat down on the bed again and looked up at him.

“Please just take your time and think this through.” She smiled at him. “If you want me and you think we can find a balance I’m all yours.” Buffy paused, she had seen something in his eyes at those words that gave her hope, she took a calming breath and continued.

“I came to London hoping to tell you that I’m in love with you and that if you want me I want to move to London and work with the slayers. But if you can’t see us together I’ll always be your slayer and your friend and nothing has to change except you hopefully allowing me to hear more about your life and us finding a better balance in our friendship.” she took a deep shaky breath and stood up.  
“Just think about it.” she smiled at him and headed for the door.

Buffy had made it halfway to the staircase when she heard him softly say her name. She turned around to see him standing in the bedroom door.  
“I can’t just let you walk away after all of that,” he said quietly.  
“You need time to think Giles”  
“No, I needed answers. You gave them. Please come back so we can talk without Willow possibly overhearing us”

Buffy nodded and followed him into the room and closed the door behind her.  
When she turned around he was standing by the bed.   
“I’m not sure where to start” he ran a hand through his hair again and chuckled “I wish I’d been clothed for this conversation.”

Buffy giggled at that and felt relieved for the shift in atmosphere.  
“What you want me to tell you is that I can stop prioritising you above everything else in my life” he chuckled “not usually what a woman asks of you.”

Giles took a step toward her “Buffy I can’t promise you that because simply put you are the most important thing in my life.”   
Buffy’s breath caught in her throat as she grasped where he was going with this.  
“Give me a chance and I’ll try my best to not put you ahead of my own interest….every time.” he smirked at her.

“Please just come here” he reached out his hand to her and as soon as she took it he pulled her to him, wrapped his arms around her and kissed her fiercely.   
He broke the kiss, looked down into her eyes and cupping her face ran a thumb over her cheekbone.   
“Are you sure Giles?” Buffy was surprised how breathless she sounded.

“Before you showed up here tonight I had already made up my mind” he held her tightly and continued stroking her face “I needed reassurance from you that you were serious that’s all. That speech of yours left little doubt.”  
She could see a tinkle in his eyes like he was teasing her and narrowed her eyes at him.  
Giles chuckled and bent down and kissed her cheek “I’m serious Buffy” he kissed her jaw “I want everything” he kissed just under her earlobe “you’re willing to give me” he lightly bit her earlobe causing Buffy’s body to shiver. 

Giles sat down on the bed and pulled her a little closer so she was standing between his legs.   
“Do you actually sleep in this or did you wear it to sway my decision” he ran the tips of his fingers up from her knees up her bare thighs and under her shorts.  
She smiled down at him “I possibly chose something a little revealing on purpose” she stroked a hand through his hair and then felt a tremble go through her body as his fingers trailed down the back of her thighs.

Giles had barely touched her but she felt weak in the knees and her breathing was shallow.  
He now moved his hands higher, sliding them under her shirt, slowly lifting it up over her breasts. She pushed it over her head laying her hands back down on his shoulders as he traced the fingers of one hand up around her belly button and up between her breasts.  
“Christ, you are beautiful” he muttered as he leant forward to lick the path his fingers had traveled.

Her nipples were hard and she moaned loudly when he took one of them in his mouth and sucked on it.   
“The things you do to me” she felt his breath on her wet skin as he whispered, moving to her other nipple. When he sucked it into his mouth she felt her knees begin to give out and Giles looked up into her eyes and smiled a wicked smile.

Giles pulled her up into his lap so that she straddled him. Buffy took the opportunity to kiss him again. She bit his lower lip eliciting a small groan from him, his hands grabbed her hips and held her down so that she could feel his erection.

They kissed for a while, their tongues exploring each other's mouth and their hands roaming the others body. Giles ran both hands up her back pulling her tight to him and then moved to lay her down in the middle of the bed without breaking the kiss. 

He started kissing his way down her body, moving down to kneel by the bed. Giles ran his hands from her ankles up the outside of her legs until he reached her knees, he grabbed her and pulled her so that her ass was on the edge of the bed. He hooked his fingers in the waistband of her shorts and then stopped and looked into her eyes, clearly seeking permission.

She smiled and nodded to him. Giles smiled back and kissed the inside of her thigh before pulling her shorts and underwear down her legs. “So fucking beautiful” she could hear him whisper as he kissed his way slowly up her inner thighs.  
“Can I taste you Buffy” he asked, looking up at her from between her legs.

Every nerve ending in her body was on fire from his slow worship of her body; she was certain he could make her come within minutes. All she could manage in reply was a breathy “yes.”   
Giles kissed her outer lips and then slowly licked his way up between them. Then he teasingly licked her clit, circling his tongue around it and Buffy couldn’t help but moan loudly and repeatedly. 

He sucked on her clit, sliding his hands up her legs, lifting them over his shoulders. Giles moved his hands to hold her hips and then he moved down to lick at her entrance. She could feel him groan as his tongue entered her. She looked down to find Giles looking up at her, he ran his hands up the inside of her thighs and then moved back up to lick at her clit again. “You taste amazing, love” he said before he sucked her clit back into his mouth and pushed a finger into her “and you are so tight” the last words came out in a half growl.

Buffy grabbed the sheets in one hand and his hair in the other as her whole body started to tremble. “God Giles, please” she needed him to get her over the edge or her whole body would tear apart. She was shocked how quickly she was ready to come but she felt dizzy from arousal.

“Relax Buffy, just let it happen” he said softly and resumed licking her. He pushed another finger into her and circled her clit with his tongue. Giles moved his hand so he entered her at another angle and Buffy saw stars. He pumped his fingers into her a few more times from that angle until she cried out his name as her orgasm hit her.

Giles kissed the inside of her thighs a few times and stroked her stomach with his fingers as she slowly came down. He then stood up and moved onto the bed moving her with him so he lay with his head on the pillow and she was draped over him.

“Wow Giles, that was intense” she said when her breathing had slowed down a little bit.  
He just chuckled a little and ran his hand up and down her back in long strokes starting at the top of her shoulder and traveling down to the curve of her ass.  
She reached up a hand to stroke his jaw and he looked down into her eyes. Her feelings for him felt overwhelming at that point and she lifted herself up a little so she could kiss him.

Buffy knew that he was willing to stop right there, if she didn’t think they should take this further. He had made her come twice in one day and now he had only pulled her up and cuddled her to him. She deepened the kiss and ran her hand over his chest. She flicked a nipple with her nail and felt him tense slightly, she ran the pad of her finger in a circle around his hard nipple and looked for a reaction. When she didn’t get it she lightly pinched his other nipple getting a small moan in response. 

She smiled to herself and ran her hand down his stomach and lightly cupped his cock, he was not as hard as he had been when she had been in his lap earlier but when she scraped her fingernails over his balls she could feel him harden in her hand. She broke their kiss and straddled him, sitting just high enough so that the tip of his erection just touched her ass. 

He stroked up her thighs, running his hands over her ass grabbing each cheek roughly enough to lift her slightly and then softly ran the tips of his fingers up her sides and cupped her breasts stroking each nipple with a thumb.   
“Fuck” he whispered as she moaned “I want you so much Buffy” he roughly grabbed the back of her neck and pulled her down to kiss him again. He grabbed her hips, lifted her and moved her lower so that his cock ran between her folds.

“Fuck you’re so wet” he said in a voice she could only describe as a growl. He held her hips down and ground up into her which sent a shiver of pleasure through her body and she moaned burying her face in his neck. “We don’t have to take this any further tonight Buffy” he moved one hand from her hip and ran it through her hair. 

Buffy lifted herself up onto her elbow so she could look into his eyes “I told you I’m all yours.” Giles really did growl that time, he flipped them over so she was on her back and he was between her legs. “Hearing you say that does something to me.” he nibbled her earlobe and licked down her neck. She just smiled at him and then whispered into his ear “I’m all yours Giles, please fuck me.”

Giles grabbed her hip with one hand and lightly bit the spot where her neck met her shoulder. She barely heard him whisper “god yes” as he then moved away and reached into his nightstand for a condom, he rolled it on and settled himself between her thighs. He grabbed her hip again and sucked on a nipple before kissing her.

His tongue entered her mouth at the same time as she felt him start to push into her.  
He broke the kiss as he thrust himself a little further in, lifting himself up to look at her. She moaned every time he thrust deeper into her. On the next thrust he pulled almost all the way out and then thrust all the way in with a quick hard thrust. She cried out at the feeling of him filling her so completely “Christ you feel amazing love” he whispered into her ear as he lowered himself back down to her.

Giles set a slow pace, pulling almost all the way out before slowly burying himself to the hilt.   
She wanted to tell him to move faster, harder, anything she just wanted more, but the only thing to come out of her mouth were breathless moans. “You are amazing” he whispered into her ear and then he lifted himself back up onto his elbows “so bloody amazing.”

She used the change in position as an opportunity to wrap her legs around him and lift her hips up to meet each of his thrusts. Giles increased their pace and moved a hand to her hips moving her slightly. Buffy gasped as the change in position allowed him to go deeper and hit a more sensitive spot within her. His thumb traveled to her clit as he bent down to suck and bite at that spot on her neck again. 

“Come for me Buffy, I can feel you are so close. You feel so good love, please come for me.” His words, his voice and his breath on her neck were too much and she cried out as she came. He thrust into her a few more times and then grabbed her hip so hard she knew it would leave a bruise as he cried out her name as he came.

Giles rolled onto his back and threw the condom into a trash can by the bed. Then he pulled her to him so her head rested on his chest, he bent his head to kiss her softly and then laid back still breathing hard. “That was amazing” she said looking up at him running her fingers through his chest hair.  
“That it was” he replied wrapping his other arm around her, holding her tightly to him. 

They laid there for a while, their breathing evening out as they stroked each other's skin. “Giles?”   
“Hmm” he sounded half asleep although the lights were still on.  
“Shouldn’t I go downstairs?”   
His hands stilled on her body and he moved a little to look at her face “Why would you go?”  
“Well Willow…”  
“I don’t intend to hide this from our friends Buffy, I assume Willow knew about your feelings.”

Of course Giles knew that she told Willow first, he had known them long enough for that.   
“Yeah I told her on the plane, I also possibly told her what happened in the kitchen last night.” Buffy bit her lip not sure how he would feel about this but he just chuckled “Yes I expected as much” he pulled away and sat up against the headboard, she sat up in the middle of the bed to face him.

“Buffy I know that the two of you share most of what goes on in your lives and I actually encourage that, the two of you seem to provide each other some balance. I would appreciate it however if you kept the details to yourself” He raised an eyebrow at her and she giggled.  
“I promise no details, but you’re ready to tell Willow and Xander right away?”  
He reached out a hand to stroke her cheek “Like I said, I don’t plan on keeping this a secret.”

She kissed him and they snuggled back down on the bed, he turned off the light and stroked her hair until she fell asleep on his chest.


	14. The Next Day

Buffy woke up to an unfamiliar noise, a warm body was pressed to her back and the memory of the night before slowly came back to her. Giles reached over her to turn off his alarm, then he laid back down and hugged her to him.  
“I’m sorry I have to go to work, just continue to sleep I’ll be quiet” he moved as if to get up from the bed but she grabbed his arm tightly.

“No way you are leaving this bed without at least a kiss goodbye?” she turned her head slightly.  
“How foolish of me” he chuckled and kissed her softly, she reached back to hold the back of his head deepening the kiss and wiggled her ass feeling his cock start to harden.

“Buffy” he said in a warning tone but kissed her and ran his hand over her stomach.  
She placed her hand over his and guided it down between her legs. “We can be quick Giles” she said more breathlessly than she expected and pressed herself back adding friction to his now very hard cock. 

“Fuck” he muttered as he ran the head of his erection over her clit “you’re so wet.”  
He started to reach for a condom in the nightstand “Uhm Giles just so you know, I’m on the pill and I’m clean.” She felt him tighten his grip on her waist and he lifted himself higher up so he could look into her eyes “Ok I’m clean too if you are sure” she nodded smiling and pulled him down and kissed him passionately. 

Giles started moving his fingers on her clit again until she started moaning and grinding back on his cock. Then he positioned himself at her opening and slowly slid inside her. They both moaned and then moved together at a slow pace, Giles kissed her neck and teased her clit.

“Giles I’m not complaining this feels amazing” Buffy said proving her words by moaning and grabbing his hair when he thrust into her hitting just the right spot “but I think I promised we could be quick.”  
“It’s very difficult to rush this, can’t say I want it to be over” he kept up his languid pace.

“I’ll be in your bed again tonight Giles” she moved against him a little harder “maybe sooner if I can get you alone.”  
Giles chuckled “If you insist” he moved the arm that had been under her neck down under her waist and used that hand to rub her clit and moved the other hand up to hold her hip as he started thrusting into her faster and harder. 

“Oh god Giles that’s” she couldn’t finish her sentence all she could do was moan every time he thrust into her. They moved together for a few more minutes, Giles whispering into her ear about how beautiful she was, what he wanted to do with her and how much her sounds turned him on.

“I’m so close love, come for me” he said through gritted teeth. Buffy whimpered she was so close “I love you Giles” she said as she grabbed his hair and pulled him in for a kiss. After another thrust or two she tensed and screamed his name as she started to go over the edge. Buffy’s orgasm was his undoing and he bit her shoulder as he came inside her.

He pulled out of her and moved them so she lay on his chest, one of her legs over his. Giles stroked her hair and kissed her softly “I love you too Buffy” he told her between kisses.  
Her eyes watered and she quickly assured him they were happy tears.

“I’m so sorry but I really have to go” he kissed her again and then got up from the bed “try to go back to sleep I’ll just shower and then I’ll be gone.”  
“We’ll talk later but I’ll be here when you get back.”

Giles smiled at her and leant back down to kiss her once more “preferably right here” he raised a suggestive eyebrow at her and then went into the bathroom.

Buffy woke up a couple of hours later and took a shower in Giles’ bathroom. She found his robe hanging on the bedroom door and put it on. Hoping that Willow was still asleep she snuck downstairs.  
“So how was your night?” Willow had a huge grin on her face as she watched Buffy walk past the kitchen. 

Buffy silently cursed and kept walking to the guest room.  
“Hey don’t you run away from me I have a right to know!” Willow called out as she followed Buffy down the hall.  
“Right?” Buffy asked laughing.  
“Yeah! A best friend must know important stuff like this”  
“I’ll tell you but can I get dressed first?” Buffy gestured to the robe.  
“Sure, I’ll make coffee” Willows grin returned as she turned back to the kitchen.

Buffy walked into the kitchen and poured herself a cup of coffee and sat at the table across from Willow.  
“So tell me!” Willow demanded excitedly.  
“I told him everything, how I felt, what I wanted” Buffy felt her face split into a similar grin as Willow’s. “You know, I told him I love him and I want to move here but only if that is what he wants and that we have to make sure that we can be equal partners not just him constantly looking out for me and taking care of me.” 

“And….?”  
“And he told me he wanted the same thing and this morning he told me he loved me and it was all just sort of perfect.” Buffy buried her face in her hands “God I sound cheesy.”  
Willow laughed as she stood up and walked over to Buffy and hugged her.  
“I’m so happy for you Buffy” she moved back to her seat and her tone switched to one of teasing when she asked “so did you?”

“Yeah” was all Buffy replied, feeling herself blush.  
“Good?” Willow was giggling “you know on a scale from boring to mind blowing.”  
“Uhm pretty much the mind blowing,” Buffy said feeling that stupid grin return to her face, she then added quickly “but I promised him I would not give you any details so please don’t ask me anything else ok? ”

Willows jaw hung open “Wow ok yeah I promise” she started giggling again and Buffy joined her.  
“Hey Buffy?” Willow returned to that teasing tone.  
“Yeah” Buffy answered hesitantly.  
“Can I please be there when you tell Xander?”

~~~

The End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who read this far!  
> It was fun to finally post some stuff and the comments and kudos helped tons!
> 
> This will be a series although the next parts will probably be a lot shorter. I'm just starting the next part so I won't post new stuff for a few days.  
> Thank you again for reading hope you enjoyed it!


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